148 . BRITISH BOTANY. 



or broadly obovate, truncate or depressed, and toothed at the 

 apex, on short, stout petioles, which are about as long as the 

 leaves; stipules small, laciniated with unequal linear-setaceous 

 segments (the teeth are long and pointed). Flowers small, soli- 

 tary or several (1-10), on axillary peduncles, which are about as 

 long as the leaves. Legume glabrous, Avith prominent external 

 ridges, and a single row of very long tapering, slender, curved 

 spines (the spines are longer than the semidiameter of the le- 

 gume, the spiral has at least three turns) . 



Blackheath, with the former. Annual ; July-September. 



Var. M. apiculata. — Spines straight and shorter than in M. 

 denticulata. Near the Itchin, Southampton, and at Wandsworth 

 Steam-boat Pier, with the following exotic species. 



Medicago sp. — Stem stout, erect, furrowed. Leaflets oblong, * 

 narrow. Peduncles stout, erect, longer than the leaves. Flowers 

 rather large, pale yellow, in lax heads (capitate), on pedicels 

 scarcely as long as the scarious smooth calyx. The whole her- 

 bage is quite. smooth. — Wandsworth. Annual; August. 



M. orbicularis, All., Moris Fl. Sard. 37. — Stems weak, sulcate, 

 slightly hairy. Leaflets obovate-cuneate at the base, hairy, 

 (Leaves often ovate, and they become red when decaying.) 

 Stipules laciniate, with long, linear -lanceolate, pointed segments. 

 Peduncles hairy, slender, shorter than the leaves, 1-2- or more- 

 flowered. Flowers very small, yellow ; calyx hairy. Legume 

 large, with five to six turns of the spiral, ridged without spines, 

 smooth. — Wandsworth. Annual; August. 



M. scutellata, AIL, Moris Fl. Sard. 37. — Stems simple or 

 branched, angular, prostrate, smooth or puberulent, hairy above, 

 leafy. Leaflets cuneate or deltoid, the upper (odd one) rhomboid 

 or rounded, all toothed on the upper margin ; stipules with hori- 

 zontal teeth. Peduncles slender, 1-2-flowered, not quite so long 

 as the leaves; pedicels very short, subtended by two scarious, 

 awned, minute bracts. Flowers small, yellow ; teeth of the 

 calyx subidate, longer than the tube. Fruit five to six turns of 

 the spiral, ridged, large, smooth or slightly puberulent. — Wands- 

 worth Steam-beat Pier. Annual; June- August. 



M. tenoreana ?, DC, Tenore Fl. Nap. 178. — Stem hairy, round, 

 slender, leafy. Leaves stalked. Leaflets cuneate, upper one 

 roundish or oblong, all toothed and hairy. Flowers solitary or 

 in pairs, small, yellow, on long, slender, hairy flower-stalks 



