558 PART IV. CLASSIFICATION. 



indehiscent : the seed frequently contains scanty endosperm. The flowers 

 are solitary and axillary, or in racemes. The leaves are only rarely 

 entire, usually palmately or pinnately compound (Fig. 23), with often large 

 stipules (Fig. 19 (7), which are sometimes spines (Robinia). The following 

 are the principal tribes : 



Tribe 1. Genistece. Stamens usually monadelphous : leaves simple, or 

 compound ternate. 



In Ulex the Whin, Gorse or Furze, Genista the Green-weed, Cytisus 

 (Sarothamnus) the Broom, and Lupinus, the stamens are monadelphous ; 

 in Genista the leaves are simple ; in Cytisus the leaves are ternate ; in 

 Ulex the leaves are ternate in seedlings, but in mature plants they are 

 scaly or spinous ; in Lupinus the leaves are palmately compound. Cytisus 

 Laburnum is a well-known flowering tree. 



Tribe 2. Tri/oliece. The posterior stamen is usually free ; leaves 

 ternate, and leaflets with serrate margins. 



In Medicago (Medick), Melilotus, and Trifolium, the stamens are dia- 

 delphous : in Ononis, the Best-harrow, they are monadelphous. Trifolium 

 is the Clover: the stamens are partially adnate to the corolla; the 

 withered corolla persists and encloses the small legume : flowers in 

 capitula; T. pratense, the Red Clover, T. repens, the White Clover, and 

 T. hybridum, the Alsike Clover, which are common in meadows, and T. 

 incarnatum, from the East, are cultivated. Medicago has usually a 

 spirally-wound legume, and a deciduous corolla ', M. falcata and lupulina 

 are common; M. saliva, Lucerne, is cultivated. Melilotus (Melilot) has a 

 globular legume ; M. alba and altissima are common on the banks of 

 streams. Trigonella is the Fenugreek. 



Tribe 3. Lotece, Stamens diadelphous, the posterior stamen being free : 

 leaves pinnate ; leaflets sessile, entire. 



Lotus corniculatus, the Bird's-foot Trefoil, with a beaked carina and 

 nearly straight legume, is common in meadows. In Anthyllis, the 

 Kidney-Vetch, the stamens are monadelphous at first, the posterior 

 stamen becoming more or less separate: Anthyllis Vulneraria, Ladies' 

 Fingers or Woundwort, is common in dry pastures. 



Tribe 4. Galegece. Stamens diadelphous : leaves multijugate impari- 

 pinnate ; leaflets stalked. 



Indigofera tinctoria, in the East Indies, produces Indigo. Glycyrrhiza 

 is the Liquorice. Robinia Pseudacacia. the false Acacia, is a native of 

 North America, but it has become naturalized. Astragalus has a legume 

 with a spurious longitudinal dissepiment : very many species of it occur, 

 especially in the East. 



Tribe 5. Hedysarece. Leaves imparipinnate ; stamens diadelphous : 

 fruit a lomentum, with transverse septa, dividing into segments. Coty- 

 ledons leafy, epigean. 



Hippocrepis,the Horse-shoe Vetch, and Coronilla arecommon in meadows ; 

 Onobrychis saliva, the Sainfoin, is cultivated. Arachis hypoguia, the Earth- 

 Almond or Ground-Nut of tropical America, ripens its fruits in the earth. 

 Desmodium gyrans, the Telegraph-plant, has motile leaflets. 



Tribe 6. Video*. Stamens diadelphous : legume unilocular ; cotyledons 

 hypogean ; leaves paripinnate and usually cirrhose (see Fig. 19 C). 



