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four or five inches. The best lime is the later end of March, in a light 

 soil. The roots may be taken up for use in September, and the 

 whole crop housed in October. When kept in sand in a dry place, 

 they continue the whole winter very good. 



2. HEDYSARUM OBSCURUM. 



CREEPING-ROOTED HEDYSARUM. 



THIS genus contains plants of the herbaceous flowering kind. 



It belongs to the class and order Diadelphia Decandria, and ranks 

 in the natural order of Papilionacetz. 



The characters are: that the calyx is a one-leafed perianthium, 

 half-five-cleft: clefts subulate, upright, permanent: the corolla is 

 papilionaceous, streaked : banner reflex-compressed, ovate-oblong, 

 emarginate, long : wings oblong, narrower than the other petals, 

 straight: keel straight, compressed, broader outwardly, transversely 

 blunt, from the base to the swelling part bifid : the stamina have dia- 

 delphous filaments, (simple and nine-cleft,) bent in at a right angle: 

 anthers roundish, compressed: the pistillum is a slender germ, com- 

 pressed, linear: style subulate, bent in with the stamens: stigma very 

 simple: the pericarpium is a legume with roundish, compressed 

 joints, two-valved, and containing one seed: the seed kidney-shaped 

 and solitary. 



The species chiefly cultivated are: 1. //. Alhagi, Prickly Hedy- 

 saruui; 2. //. Canadense, Canadian Hedysarum; 3. H.gyrans, Sen- 

 sitive Hedysarum ; 4. H. coronarium, Common Hedysarum, or 

 French Honeysuckle: 5. H . Jlexuosum, Waved-podded Hedysarum; 

 6. H. humilc, Dwarf Hedysarum; 7- H- spinosissimum, Prickly Hedy- 

 sarum. 



The first has the stems shrubby, about three feet high, branching 

 out on every iid;: the leaves are shaped like those of broad-leaved 



