li^IADELPHIA. DECANDRIA. 93 



Herbaceous, rarely shrvibby; leaves digitate, in a few 

 species simple, stipules adnate to the base of the petiole, 

 flowers in terminal spikes, altemate or subverticillate, 

 naked or bracteate. 



Species. 1. h. perennis, 2. nooikatemis. 3. sericeus. 

 Ph. 4c. ar^enteus. Ph. S-pusiUus. Ph. Annual; small and 

 very hairy; leaves digitate, leaflets (5 to 7) cuneate-oblong, 

 above smooth and somewhat glaucous; flowers alternate, 

 calix inappendiculate, upper lip short and bidentate, lower 

 ovate-lanceolate, entire; legume 2-seeded, hirsute. Hab. 

 On the barren argillaceous plains of the Missouri, near 

 the confluence of White river. Obs. From 4 to 6 inches 

 high, growing in considerable quantities together; flowers 

 bright blue, appearing in May; bractes nearly as long as 

 the calix, the lower lip of which is twice the length of 

 the upper, wings of the corolla adnate at the summit; ca- 

 rina resupinate, attenuated; stamina united into a cylinder, 

 anthers alternately minute; style smoothi rigidly persis' 

 tent; legume extremely pilose, hirsute. 



6. villosus. Biennial; lanuginously villous; leaves simple, 

 oblong-lanceolate, petiole and legume densely lanuginous; 

 stipules filiform, very long; flowers semiverticillate; calix 

 appendiculate, the upper lip bidentate, the lower undivid- 

 ed. Hab. In sandy Pine forests, from South Carolina to 

 Florida; rare. (Not uncommon round Savannah in Georgia-) 

 Ob3. Decumbent; stem, petiole and stipules, thickly cover- 

 ed with lo-ig, soft, spreading hairs; stipules 12 to 15 lines 

 long, petiole 2 to 3 inches, leaf 5 or 6 inches long, subacute, 

 spike proportionably large; bractes subulate, deciduous, 

 as long as the calix; calix conspicuously villous, produ- 

 cing on either side a lateral subulate segment, (or appen- 

 diculate as described by Willdenow and adopted by Per- 

 soon, notwithstanding the careless assertions of Michaux 

 and Pursh to the contrary;) legume 10 to 15 lines long, so 

 densely lanuginous as to appear like a mass of silky wool, 

 seeds smaller than lentiles, variegated. Vexillum viola- 

 ceous, towards the centre very deep brown. The figure 

 in Pursh's Flora, 2. p. 468. t. 21. appears to have been la- 

 ken fi-om a bad specimen. 



7. * diffiims. Scriceously and closely villous; stems nu- 

 merous, difl'use and decumbent; leaves simple, oblong-ob- 

 ovate, attenuated downwards; petiole and stipules short 

 and naked. Hab. Around Wilmington, and in many other 

 parts of North and South Carolina, in the barren forests of 

 tlie Quercus Cutesb.ei and Q. nigra. The flowers and fruit 

 I have never seen; and if the plant had not occurred to me 

 at least a thousand *imes, and for several hundreds of miles 

 80 unifcrm and distinct from L. villoms, I should not have 



