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OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



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somewhat shrubby, upright, three feet high, branched ; 

 spikes upright, mostly terminating; flowers heaped, yellow, 

 each with two hairy bractes, marked with lines. Native of 

 China, near Canton. 



23. Hedysarutn Spartium. Leaves ternate and simple, 

 somewhat tomentose ; stem dichotomous ; flowers in pairs ; 

 legumes jointed, hispid. This is a whitish plant, with 

 shrubby variegated stems, very short blunt stipules, and 

 oblong leaves ; flowers scattered, subpedicelled, in pairs or 

 solitary ; corolla yellow, with the claw the length of the 

 calix, and the border flat. Native of India. 



24. Hedysarum Lineatum. Leaves oblong, marked with 

 lines; racemes axillary, pendulous ; stem straight; legumes 

 rhomb-shaped, of one joint only, with one seed. Native of 

 Ceylon. 



25. Hedysarum Supinum. Leaves ovate, bluntish, hoary- 

 villose underneath; stem branched, procumbent; racemes 

 simple, erect, terminating ; root long, small, woody. Stems 

 a foot long, reddish, rough, round, woody ; corolla purple ; 

 legumes crooked, forming a semicircle, brown ; the joints 

 united by so small an isthmus, that when they adhere by 

 their roughness to the clothes, they separate ; whence the 

 Portuguese name of Erva de Amor, or Love-Herb. It grows 

 almost every where in the woods of Jamaica. 



26. Hedysarum Canum. Leaves ovate, acuminate, hoary 

 underneath ; stem columnar, branched, erect ; racemes termi- 

 nating, erect; legumes declined, rough with hairs. The stalks 

 are terminated by long spikes of small purple flowers, which 

 are succeeded by narrow pods, straight on one side, but 

 jointed on the other. Native of Jamaica and Hispaniola. 



27. Hedysarum Retroflexum. Racemes erect; legumes 

 pendulous, many-jointed, compressed, with one edge repand, 

 and from four to seven joints ; leaflets ovate, tomentose, 

 underneath silky. Native of India. 



28. Hedysarurn Trigonum. Leaves ovate, acute, rough 

 with hairs ; stem climbing, three-sided ; racemes very long, 

 axillary; legumes writhed, bent in. It is a climber, and 

 raises itself generally to the top of the tallest trees in the 

 wood. The stem is every where beset with small hooked 

 bristles or rough hairs. The leaves are much like those of 

 the Kidney-bean ; and all the branches terminate in a large 

 and beautiful flower-spike. Native of Jamaica. 



29. Hedysarum Umbellatum. Peduncles umbelliferous; 

 stem shrubby. This shrub has woody branches, the lower 

 ones round and brown, the upper ones angular and villose; 

 peduncles axillary, solitary, shorter than the petioles ; flowers 

 white. Native of India, Tanna, and New Caledonia. 



30. Hedysarum Biarticulatum. Stem undershrubby ; le- 

 gumes two-jointed ; leaves like those of Trefoil, with ovate- 

 oblong smooth leaflets, almost equal ; flowers in spikes. 

 Native of India and China. 



31. Hedysarum Lappaceum. Leaves ternate, obcordate ; 

 flowers axillary, subsolitary ; legumes two-jointed, with 

 hooked bristles ; stems suffruticose, prostrate, pubescent, 

 round, the thickness of a pigeon's quill, very much branch- 

 ed ; stipules minute, awl-shaped ; flowers on short peduncles, 

 solitary, seldom two together; germen villose. Native of 

 the East Indies. 



32. Hedysarum Heterocarpon. Flowers panicle-spiked; 

 legumes jointed, the lowest one-seeded; stipules bristle- 

 shaped; stems round, herbaceous ; spike of flowers narrow. 

 There is a variety which is more procumbent, with blunter 

 leaflets : the lowest legumes of this are not always one-jointed. 

 Native of Ceylon, China, Japan, and the Society Isles. 



33. Hedysarum Viscidum. Legumes membranaceous, even, 

 entire ; stem and branches hispid. The upper branches are 



VOL. i. 56. 



hispid, with spreading viscid hairs ; leaves on longish pe- 

 tioles ; leaflets broad, from round inclined to rhomb-shape. 

 Native of India. 



34. Hedysarum Scorpiurus. Leaves oblong, hirsute 

 underneath ; stems procumbent, three-cornered ; racemes 

 axillary; legumes roundish, upright. This plant grows in 

 tufts, and seldom rises above sixteen or seventeen inches 

 from the root. Native of Jamaica and Hispaniola. 



35. Hedysarum Canadense; Canadian Hedysarum. Leaves 

 simple and ternate ; stem even ; flowers racemed. This is 

 an upright plant, and mostly smooth ; stem streaked, and 

 angular; leaflets lanceolate; stipules awl-shaped. It is per- 

 ennial. A native of Virginia and Canada, where it is found 

 flowering in July and August. The seeds of this plant may 

 be sown in the beginning of April, in a light fresh earth. 

 When the plants are come two inches high, they should be 

 transplanted where they are to remain for good ; but if they 

 are not too thick in the seed-bed, they may be suffered to 

 remain there until the following autumn, at which time they 

 should be carefully taken up, and transplanted into the bor- 

 ders where they are designed to stand ; for their roots gene- 

 rally run down very deep, so that it is unsafe to remove 

 them often. This plant produces its flowers about the same 

 time of the year as the former, and, if the season proves 

 favourable, perfects its seeds in autumn ; and the roots will 

 abide in the open air very well, resisting the severest cold, 

 provided they be planted in a dry soil. 



36. Hedysarum Gyrans; Sensitive Hedysarum. Leaves 

 oval-lanceolate, obtuse, the lateral ones minute; racemes 

 terminating and axillary, rather simple, many-flowered, long; 

 leaflets pubescent ; flowers nodding; bractes solitary, mem- 

 branaceous, cordate, under the flowers deciduous; calix 

 erect, two-lipped ; upper lip trifid, lower with two smaller 

 contiguous teeth ; banner of the corolla largish, roundish, 

 entire, brown with dusky streaks ; wings connected with the 

 keel by their upper edge, brown ; keel longer than the 

 wings, bifid at the base and tip, compressed, ferruginous ; 

 legume on a short pedicel, compressed, channelled on the 

 back, crenate in front, gaping, containing five or six kidney- 

 form oblong seeds. The leaves are of a bright green, with 

 the middle part of a more glaucous appearance than the rest. 

 This is a wonderful plant, on account of its voluntary motion, 

 which is not occasioned by any touch, irritation, or move- 

 ment in the air, as in Mimosa, Oxalis, and Dioneea, nor is it 

 so transitory as in Amorpha. No sooner, says Linneus, had 

 the plants raised from seed acquired their ternate leaves, than 

 they began to be in motion this way and that ; this movement 

 did not cease during the whole course of their vegetation, nor 

 were they observant of any time, order, or direction ; one 

 leaflet frequently revolved, whilst the other on the same 

 petiole was quiescent; sometimes a few leaflets only were in 

 motion, then almost all of them would be in movement at 

 once : the whole plant was very seldom agitated, and that 

 only during the first year. It continued to move in the stove 

 during the second year of its growth, and was not at rest 

 even in winter. Swartz observes, that the motion is irregular, 

 and that it sometimes ceases entirely ; that it is immoveable 

 in a very hot day, being only slowly agitated in the evening. 

 In our climate, the leaves in general only make a feeble 

 attempt at exerting this extraordinary faculty towards the 

 middle of the day. We are at a loss to account for this 

 motion, which does not depend upon any external cause that 

 we can trace, and which we are not able to excite by any 

 art that we possess. It is not the action of the sun's rays, 

 for the plant is fond of shade, and the leaves revolve well on 

 rainy days, and during the night: exposed to too much wind 



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