MelilotUS,] XLVII. § PAPILIONACEiE (baker), 53 



acuminate equalling- the tube. Corolla pale yellow, three times as long 

 as the calyx, all the petals equal. Pod a line long", globose, glabrous, 

 distinctly reticulato-rugose, 1 -seeded. — M. neapolitana, Ten. Prod. 

 Suppl. i. 56. 



Nile Land. Abyssinia {teste Schweinfurth) . 

 A common Mediterranean species. 



3. M. abyssinica, Baker. Stems 1-2 ft. high, erect, glabrous, 

 copiously branched. Petioles j-1 in. long ; leaflets obovate-cuneate, 

 toothed, 9-15 lines long. Flowers in copious stalked lax axillary 

 racemes 1-2 in. long. Pedicels cernuous, equalling the calyx, which 

 is scarcely a line long, teeth lanceolate, reaching halfway down. 

 Corolla pale yellow, quite twice as long as the calyx, the wings and 

 keel rather shorter than the standard. Pod sessile, glabrous, roundish 

 with a mucro, 2 lines each way, the keel thick and prominent with a 

 channel on each side, faces marked with parallel raised transverse bars, 

 which are a little connected by intermediate ones, the seeds two. — M. 

 italica, A. Rich. Fl. Abyss, i. 166, non Lam. ; DC. ii. 188. 



Nile Land. Abyssinia, Schimper! Parhyns! 



Pod with a keel like that of M. italica, but the bars regularly arcuate, the seeds two 

 instead of one, and flowers much smaller. 



12. TRIFOLIUM, Linn. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant, i. 487. 



Calyx-teeth subequal, two upper sometimes more or less connate. 

 Petals adnate below to the staminal tube ; standard ovate or oblong • 

 wings narrow ; keel shorter obtuse. Stamens diadelphous ; alternate 

 filaments or all of them more or less dilated ; anthers uniform. Ovary 

 sessile or stalked, 1- or -pauci-ovulate, rarely multiovulate ; style 

 filiform ; stigma capitate or oblique. Pod oblong, rarely linear-oblong ; 

 seeds 1-2, rarely more. — Herbs with the leaflets three in all our 

 species, toothed in all but one, sessile or faintly stalked. 



A large genus extending all round the North Temperate zone, stretching southward 

 to the South Temperate zone along the mountains ; with us almost exclusively Nilotic. 



§ Lagopus. — Calyx with an elevated hairy ring at the throat . 1 . T. arvense. 



Calyx without a ring of hairs at the throat. 



Bracts' forming a distinct conspicuous whorl round the heads of 

 flowers. 



§§ Vesicastruxn. — Fruit-calyx accrescent, arching, mem- 

 branous. 



Perennial, with procumbent stems 2. T. fragiferum. 



Annual, with erect stems 3. X. Steudneri. 



§§§ Eutriphyllum. — Fruit-calyx not accrescent. 



Flowers 6-12 in dense heads on long erect stems. 



Calyx distinctly stalked 4. T. umbeUulatum. 



Calyx subsessile 5. T. Quartinianum. 



Flowers 2-3 ; stems very short .......... 6. T. acaule. 



Bracts indistinct or obsolete. 



