300 BIADELPHIA DECANDRIA. [cL. XVII. 



from four to ten inches long : flowers about three in each head, 

 bright-yellow, generally streaked with red. Perennial: flowers 

 from May to September : grows in pastures, abundantly. An ex- 

 cellent pasture plant. It presents several varieties, some of which 

 have been considered as species, especially one with long slender 

 stems, the L. tennis of some botanists. Eng. Bot. vol. xxx. pi. 2090. 

 Eng. Fl. vol. iii. p. 312. 1086. 



2. L. major. Greater Bird's-foot Trefoil. Heads many-flowered, 

 depressed ; stems erect, hollow ; legumes drooping, cylindrical ; 



claw of the standard linear; shorter filaments not dilated. 



Stems erect, from one to two feet high, succulent and tubular : 

 flowers from six to twelve, yellow. Perennial : flowers in July 

 and August : grows in moist pastures, and by ditches and hedges : 

 common. Eng. Bot. vol. xxx. pi. 2091. Eng. Fl. vol. iii. p. 313. 



1087. 



3. L. angustissimus. Slender Bird 1 s-foot Trefoil. Flowers solitary, 

 or in pairs ; stems tubular, much branched, prostrate ; legumes 

 two-edged, very slender ; calyx loosely hairy, its teeth fringed, 



twice as long as the tube. Stems from six to ten inches long : 



flowers yellow. Perennial: flowers in May and June : grows in 

 meadows on the southern and western coasts of England and Ire- 

 land : very rare. Eng. Bot. vol. xiii. pi. 925. Eng. FL vol. iii. p. 

 315. 1088. 



19. MEDICA'GO. MEDICK. 



Calyx inferior, tubular, permanent, with five acute, nearly 

 equal teeth. Corolla of five petals, deciduous ; standard egg- 

 shaped, ascending, with a short broad claw ; wings inversely 

 egg-shaped, cohering by their lower edges ; keel of two united 

 petals with separate claws, oblong, obtuse, depressed by the 

 germen, and finally spreading widely. Filaments ten,* nine 

 united nearly to their summits into a compressed tube, split 

 above, the other hair-like ; separate, anthers small, roundish. 

 Germen stalked, oblong, compressed, incurved or spiral, start- 

 ing elastically from the keel, and forcing back the standard. 

 Style awl-shaped, straight, ascending; stigma terminal, mi- 

 nute. Legume compressed, inflected, sickle-shaped, or spiral, 

 one-celled, two-valved. Seeds several, kidney-shaped, smooth. 

 Name, from Medike of the Greeks, the plant having been in- 

 troduced from Media. 364, 



1. M.falcdta. Yellow Sickle Medick. Clusters erect ; legumes 



sickle-shaped ; stem procumbent. Stems about two feet long : 



flowers pale-yellow, sometimes green, occasionally purple. Peren- 

 nial : flowers in June and July : grows in pastures and borders of 

 fields, in some parts of England, but is not indigenous. Eng. Bot. 

 vol. xv. pi. 1016. Eng. Fl. vol. iii. p. 317. 1089. 



2. M.lupulina. Black Medick Nonesuch. Spikes egg- shaped, erect ; 

 legumes kidney-shaped, one-seeded ; stem procumbent. Re- 

 sembles Trifolium minus in its stems and yellow flowers. Annual : 

 flowers from June to September : grows in pastures and fields : 

 common. Eng. Bot. vol. xiv. pi. 971. Eng. Fl. vol. iii. p. 318. 1090. 



3. M. maculdta. Spotted Medick. Stalks two or three-flowered ; 

 leaflets inversely heart-shaped, spotted ; stipules acutely toothed ; 

 legumes spiral, depressed, fringed with long bristles. -Stems 



