LEGUMINOSAE (PULSE FAMILY) 



519 



38. DESM6DIUM Desv. TICK TREFOIL 



Calyx usually 2-lipped. Standard obovate ; wings adherent to the straight 

 or straightish and usually truncate keel, by means of a little transverse append- 

 age on each side of the latter. Stamens diadelphous, !)and 1, or monadelphous 

 below. Pod flat, deeply lobed on the lower margin, separating into flat reticu- 

 lated joints (mostly roughened with minute hooked hairs). Perennial herl's. 

 with pinnately 3-foliolate (rarely 1-foliolate) leaves, stipellate. Flowers in axil- 

 lary or terminal racemes, often panicjed, and 2 or 3 from each bract, purple or 

 purplish, often turning green in withering. Stipules and bracts scale-like, often 

 striate. (Name from 5ea-/x6s, a bond or chain, from the connected joints of the 

 pods.) MEIBOMIA Adans. 



N.B. In this genus the figures of the loments are on a scale of 1$. 



1. Pod raised on a stalk (stipe) many times longer than the slightly toothed 

 calyx and nearly as long as the pedicel, straightish on the upper margin, deeply 



sinuate on the lower; the 1-4 joints mostly 

 half-obovate and concave on the back; sta- 

 mens monadelphous below; plants nearly 

 glabrous; stems erect or ascending; raceme 

 terminal, panicled ; stipules bristle-form, 

 deciduous. 



786 D 



1. D. nudifl&rum (L.) DC. Leaves all crowded 

 at the summit of sterile stems; leaflets broadly 

 ovate, bluntish, whitish beneath ; raceme elon- 

 gated on an ascending mostly leafless stalk or scape 

 6-10 dm. high. (Meibomia Ktze.) Dry woods, 

 s. Me. to w. Que., Ont., Minn, and southw. FIG. 



785. D. nudiflorum. _. . . 



Too. 



2. D. grandifl&rum (Walt.) DC. Leaves all crowded at the summit of the 

 stem from which arises the elongated naked raceme or panicle ; leaflets round- 

 ovate, taper-pointed, green both sides, the 



end one round (1-1.3 dm. long). (D. acu- 

 minatum DC. ; Meibomia grandiflora Ktze.) 

 Rich woods, centr. Me. to Ont., S. Dak., 

 and southw. FIG. 786. 



3. D. pauciflbrum (Nutt.) DC. Leaves 

 scattered along the low (2-4 dm. high) 

 ascending stems ; leaflets rhombic-ovate, 

 bluntish, pale beneath ; raceme few-flowered, 



terminal. (Meibomia Ktze.) Woods, Ont. to Pa., Mich., Kan., and southw. 



2. Pod raised on a stalk (stipe) little if at all surpassing the deeply cleft calyx ; 

 stems long and prostrate or decumbent; racemes axillary and terminal. 



* Stipules conspicuous, ovate, attenuate, striate, persistent ; racemes mostly simple. 



4. D. rotundifblium (Michx.) DC. Soft-hairy all over, truly prostrate ; leaf- 

 lets orbicular, or the odd one slightly rhomboid ; floicers purple; pods almost 



equally sinuate on both edges, 3-5-jointed ; 

 the joints rhomboid-oval. (Meibomia Mich- 

 auxii Vail.) Dry woods, e. Mass, to Fla., 

 w. to Minn., Mo., and La. A form with 

 ovate leaflets occurs in Va. (Curtiss). 



5. D. ochroleucum M. A. Curtis. Stems 

 sparsely hairy, decumbent ; leaflets nearly 

 glabrous, ovate, acute or obtuse, transversely 



787 D ochrolencum reticulated beneath, the lateral ones smaller 



or sometimes wanting ; racemes much elon- 

 gated ; corolla whitish; pods twisted, 2-4-jointed, the large rhomboid joints 

 smooth and reticulated but the margins downy. (Meibomia Ktze.) Wood- 

 lands, N. J. and Del. to Ga. and Mo. FIG. 787. 



