172 BRITISH BOTANY. 



Often cultivated as a fodder plants hence it has become natu- 

 ralized on open chalky or calcareous places. Perennial ; June- 

 August. 



CoRONiLLA, Lin. — Perennial plants, with woody, spreading 

 roots, half-shrubby or herbaceous stems, and unequally pinnate 

 leaves. Flowers reflexed, umbellate, rosy-white or yellow. Calyx 

 campanulate, bilabiate, 5-toothed, the upper two teeth combined. 

 Keel of corolla, terminating in a beak. Legume linear, straight, 

 or lient, angular or cylindrical, with oblong, turgid joints. 



C. varia, Lin. — Stems herbaceous, spreading, ascending, gla- 

 brous, branched and leafy. Leaves in 4-10 pairs, with an odd 

 one, with oblong-obtuse, petiolate, mucronate, notched leaflets ; 

 stipules free, herbaceous or slightly scarious. Flowers a pale 

 rose-colour, in dense many-flowered umbels, on long, axillary pe- 

 duncles. Legumes triangular (cylindrical, with a deep groove 

 on one side, and a ridge on the other), with a long filiform 

 beak. — In dry banky places on the Continent. It occasionally 

 grows spontaneously in the south of England. We have met 

 with it at Yarmouth and Chelsea. 



AMYGDALACEtE, Juss. (a section of Rosacea). — Drupace^, 

 DC. The Almond Family. 



Trees and shrubs bearing gum, which distils from their bark, 

 and yielding more or less hydrocyanic acid ; with sometimes spi- 

 nous branches. Leaves scattered, often in tufts (fascicles), simple, 

 toothed; stipules free, deciduous [caducous?). Flowers regular, 

 solitary or in pairs, disposed in umbellate tufts or in simple 

 corymbs or clusters, often expanded before the leaves are deve- 

 loped. Calyx caducous, consisting of five sepals, not attached to 

 the ovary, imbricated before expansion. Petals five, inserted in 

 the throat of the calyx, very caducous, imbricated in prefloration. 

 Stamens 15-30, inserted with the petals in the throat of the ca- 

 lyx. Anthers introrse. Ovary free, consisting of a single carpel, 

 with one cell and tw^o ovules. Stigma capitate. Fruit fleshy (a 

 drupe, a succulent fruit surrounding a cell, which is lined with 

 a bony or ligneous substance, endocarp), one-seeded by abortion, 

 rarely two-seeded. Seed suspended, without albumen (perisperm). 

 Embryo straight. Radicle towards the hilum. 



Prunus, Tour. — Trees or shrubs, usually more or less thorny 



