132 LEGUMINOS.fi. Trifolium. 



deeply cleft or parted into entire acuminate lobes : flowers often an inch long, pale 

 rose-color or purplish : calyx-tube very short, membranaceous ; the teeth thin, nar- 

 rowly subulate, entire or occasionally 2 - 3-cleft : pod 2 - 6-seeded. Bot. Keg. t. 

 1883. T. physopetalum, Fischer & Meyer, Ind. Sem. Petrop. iii. 47. T. Gambelii 

 Nutt. PL Gambel. 151. 



A common species in the Coast Ranges and in the foot-hills of the Sierra Nevada, through the 

 length of the State ; in some places very abundant and affording good pasturage. 



+- -t- Heads small, few-flowered : involucre" small or ivanting. 



25. T. depauperatum, Desvaux. Smooth, low and slender, decumbent or 

 ascending : stipules small, lanceolate, acuminate, entire ; leaflets obcordate to linear 

 and acute, half an inch long or usually less: heads 3 - 10- flowered ; involucre 

 reduced to a very small toothed or truncate often minute and scarious ring : flowers 

 white or purple, 2 or 3 lines long : calyx short ; the teeth narrowly subulate : 

 ovules 2 to 6 : pod usually 1 - 2-seeded. Jour. Bot. iv. 69, t. 32 ; Gray, Proc. 

 Am. Acad. vi. 523. T. stenopfiyllum, Nutt. PL Gambel. 151. 



Hillsides and valleys from Southern California to Sonoma and Placer counties. It is also 

 Chilian. 



26. T. amplectens, Torr. & Gray. Like the last : involucre shorter than the 

 flowers, 4 - 5-parted or cleft ; the segments oblong, usually obtuse, entire or ob- 

 scurely toothed. Fl. i. 319 ; Hook. & Arn. Bot. Beechey, 330, t. 78 ; Gray, 1. c. 

 T. diversifolium, Nutt. 1. c. 152. 



In similar or the same localities ; also Guadalupe Island, Palmer. Probably only a variety of 

 T. depauperatum. 



6. MELILOTUS, Tourn. SWEET CLOVER. 



Flowers as in Tri/olium, except that the petals are free from the stamens and 

 deciduous. Pod small but longer than the calyx, ovoid or subglobose, scarcely 

 dehiscent, 1 - 2-seeded. Annual or biennial herbs ; leaves pinnately 3-foliolate, 

 the leaflets usually serrulate, and stipules adnate to the petiole ; flowers small, yel- 

 low or white, in slender axillary pedunculate racemes. 



An Old World genus of about 10 species, several of which are often cultivated for forage pur- 

 poses, and readily run wild in waste places. The herbage is fragrant in drying. 



1. M. parviflora, Desf. Annual, smooth, erect, often 2 or 3 feet high, branch- 

 ing : leaflets mostly cuneate-oblong, obtuse, denticulate, an inch long or less : flowers 

 yellow, a line long, nearly sessile. M. occidentalis, Nutt. in Torr. & Gray, FL 

 L 321. 



Native of the Mediterranean region, now widely naturalized in warm countries, and common 

 in California. Cattle are fond of it. 



M. OFFICINALIS, Willd. , with yellow flowers twice as large and on slender pedicels, and 

 M. ALBA, Lam., with white flowers, the standard longer than the other petals, are the other 

 species most likely to occur in the State. 



7. MEDICAGO, Linn. 



Characters nearly as in the last : style subulate : pod compressed, falcate, in- 

 curved or spirally coiled : seeds one or several. Mostly herbs, annual to peren- 

 nial ; stipules often laciniate ; flowers yellow or violet. 



Like the last wholly from the Old World, where there are about 40 species. 



1. M. sativa, Linn. (LUCERNE. ALFALFA.) Stems erect, 2 to 4 feet high, 

 from a deep perennial tap-root, glabrous : leaflets cuneate-oblong or oblanceolate, 

 toothed above : flowers comparatively large, purple, racemed : pods numerous, spi- 

 rally twisted, finely veined, not armed. 



