LBGUMINOSAE (PULSE FAMILY") 



519 



38. DESM6dIUM Desv. Tick Trefoil 



Calyx usually 2-lipped. Standard obovate ; wings adlierent to the straight 

 or straightish and usually truncate keel, by means of a little transverse append- 

 age on each side of the latter. Stamens diadelphous, 9 and 1, or monadelphous 

 below. Pod flat, deeply lobed on the lower margin, separating into flat reticu- 

 lated joints (mostly roughened with minute hooked hairs). — Perennial herbs 

 with pinnately 3-foliolate (rarely 1-foliolate) leaves, stipellate. Flowers in axil- 

 lary or terminal racemes, often panicled, and 2 or 3 from each bract, purple of 

 purplish, often turning green in withering. Stipules and bracts scale-like, often 

 striate. (Name from Sea-fxds, a bond or chain^ from the connected joints of the 

 pods.) Meibomia Adans. 



N.B. — In this genus the figures of the loments are on a scale of 1 J. 



§ 1. Pod raised on a stalk (stipe) many times longer than the slightly toothed 

 calyx and nearly as long as the pedicel, straightish on the upper margin, deeply 



sinuate on the lower; the 1-4 joints mostly 

 half-ohovate and concave on the hack; sta- 

 mens monadelphous below; plants nearly 

 glabrous; stems erect or ascending ; raceme 

 terminal, panicled ; stipules bristle-form, 

 deciduous. 



1. D. nudifl5rum (L.) DC. Leaves all crowded 

 at the summit of sterile stems; leaflets broadly 

 ovate, bluntish, whitish beneath ; raceme elon- 

 gated on an ascending mostly leafless stalk or scape 

 6-10 dm. high. (Meibomia Ktze.) — Dry woods, 



TOK Tx Ata s. Me. to w. Que., Ont., Minn, and south w. Fig, 



785. D. nudiflorum. -j^^ ^ ' ' 



2. D. grandiflbrum (Walt.) DC. Leaves all crowded at the summit of the 

 stem from which arises the elongated naked raceme o-*' panicle; leaflets round- 

 ovate, taper-pointed, green both sides, the 

 end one round (1-1.3 dm. long). (Z>. acu- 

 minatum DC. ; Meibomia grandiflora Ktze.) 

 — Rich woods, centr. Me. to Ont., S. Dak., 

 and south w. Fig. 786. 



3. D. pauciflbrum (Nutt.) DC. Leaves 

 scattered along the low (2-4 dm. high) 



ascending stems ; leaflets rhombic-ovate. ^gg ^ grandiflorum. 



bluntish, pale beneath ; raceme few-flowered, 



terminal. {Meibomia Ktze.) — Woods, Ont. to Pa., Mich., Kan., and southw. 



§ 2. Pod raised on a stalk (stipe) little if at all surpassing the deeply cleft calyx ; 



stems long and prostrate or decumbent; racemes axillary and terminal. 

 * Stipules conspicuous, ovate, attenuate, striate, persistent ; racemes mostly simple. 



4. D. rotundif51ium (Michx.) DC. Soft-hairy all over, truly prostrate ; leaf- 

 lets orbicular, or the odd one slightly rhomboid ; flowers purple ; pods almost 



equally sinuate on both edges, 3-5-jointed ; 

 the joints rhomboid-oval. (Meibomia Mich- 

 auxii Vail.) — Dry woods, e. Mass. to Fla., 

 w. to Minn., Mo,, and La. — A form with 

 ovate leaflets occurs in Va. (Curtiss). 



5. D. ochroleucum M. A. Curtis. Stems 

 sparsely hairy, decumbent ; leaflets nearly 

 glabrous, ovate, acute or obtuse, transversely 

 T87. D. ochroleucum. reticulated beneath, the lateral ones smaller 



or sometnnes wanting; racemes much elon- 

 gated; corolla whitish; pods timsted, 2-4-jointed, the large rhomboid joints 

 smooth and reticulated but the margins downy. (Meibomia Ktze.) ^^"— ^ 

 lands, N. J. and Del. to Ga. and Mo. Fig. 787. 



Wood- 



