NORTH AMERICAN LOTI. 137 



what is the general significance of this kind of character in 

 that tribe of Leguminos.^, the Trifoliene, to which these plants 

 belong. As the West American clover-species with from five 

 to nine leaflets are not to be separated generically from the 

 rest, it follows that the plaripinnate-leaved American Loti 

 must not be sundered from the trifoliolate type. And since 

 the jointed pedicels and deciduous fruiting calyces of for 

 €xamj)le the Lagopus subgenus of Trifolinm are not to be of 

 generic import, neither may they be so treated in this group 

 of Lotus which has been called a genus under the name 

 Syrmaiium. Tlie indeliiscence of the pods is not at all con- 

 fined to this group of species. In the very type of the 

 Husackias and in all its near allies, the dehiscence is so tardy 

 that they may about as well be described as indehiscent ; and 

 this appears to hold true of a fair proportion of species in 

 Old World L(Ans. 



The conclusion here reached, after deliberate and pro- 

 longed investigations in field and herbarium is, that the more 

 or less widely received genera, Lotus, Tefragonolohns^ Lofea^ 

 Krolxcria and Dorycniitm of the Old World, along with 

 Acmispon^ Anisoloius, Hosackki and Syrmuiium of the New 

 are even more naturally of one genus than are the various 

 subdivisions of the one genus Trifolimn as now everywhere 



J'eceived. 



« 



Annuals with gland-like traces of stipules, leaves pinnaiehj 

 3-foliolate {often 1, rarely 5 leaflets), flowers oftyjricol 



Lotus, pod straight^ readily dehiscent. 



Genus Acmispon, Kaf. 



1. L. SERICEUS, Pursh, Fl. ii. 489 (1814); Bentli. Traus. 

 Linn. Soc. xvii. 368. Trigonella Americana, Xutt. Gen. ii. 

 120 (1818). Lotus Amcvkanus, Bischof, Del. Sera. Heidelb. 

 (1839). Acmispon sericeiim, Eaf. New FL i. 53 (1836). 

 fTosacJcia PursJiunui, Benth. Bot. Beg. xv. under t. 1257 

 (1829). H. elata, florihunda, pilosa and mollis, Nutt. 

 Torr. & Gray Fl. i. 327 (1838). The type of this perhaps 



