208 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



Anthyllis Vulneraria 

 (Kidney Vetch, Lady's -fingers). 



terminal or lateral obtuse or swollen stiginatiferous surface. 1 The 

 fruit (fig. 16S) is an oblong or often linear bivalve 2 pod, straight or 

 curved, cylindrical or with four longitudinal wings, turgid or 

 piano-compressed, and usually divided by incomplete transverse 

 false septa into chambers, each of which contains a lenticular 

 or subglobular campylotropous seed without any arillar dilatation. 



The plants of this genus are herbaceous 

 or suffrutescent, glabrous or covered 

 with silky or bristly down. The leaf- 

 lets of the alternate trifoliolate leaves 

 articulate with the apex of the petiole, 

 and the stipules resemble the leaflets 

 in form. The flowers form often few- 

 or one-flowered false umbels terminat- 

 ing an axillary peduncle, and are fre- 

 quently accompanied by a trifoliolate 

 bract. Some fifty species are known from 

 all temperate and mountainous regions. 3 

 In the series Lotece come first of all 



three other genera in which as in Lotus 



Fig. 169. 

 Flower (f). 



Fig. 170. 



Longitudinal 



section of flower. 



the pod is bivalve — Cytisopsis, Dorycnimn, 



and lLomckia. The genus AnthyUis 



(figs. 169, 170) may be considered the 



type of a second subseries including 



four genera in which the fruit does not open at all, or else opens 



but slightly at a very advanced period. These genera are AnthyUis, 



Securiyena, Helminthocarpum, and Hymenocarpus. 



1 In Eulotus Seb., the style often has a little 

 iutrorse lobe or accessory tooth. This is also the 

 case in Pedrosia. The appendage becomes mem- 

 branous in certain species of Tetragonolobus. 



2 The form of the fruit is the chief character 

 by which this genus has been subdivided into 

 sections. Bentham admits the five following : — 



1. KroJceria. — Pod coriaceous, turgid bowed; 

 inferior suture strongly marked. 



2. Lotea. — Pod thin, linear bowed, compressed 

 or torulose. 



3. Mierolotus. — Pod oblong or linear, usually 

 straight (the calyx differs from that of Lotea). 



4. Eulotus. — Pod of Lotea or Mierolotus; 

 calyx bilabiate or with five subequal lobes. 



5. Tetragonolobus. — Each valve of pod with 

 five longitudinal wings ; seeds separated by false 

 septa. Style of Eulotus. 



8 Desf., Fl.Atlant., t. 210 ( Tetragonolobus).— 

 Vi:nt., Jard. Malm., t. 92 ; Jard. Ccls., t. 57.— 

 (ay., Icon., ii. 156, 157, 163. — SlBTH., El. 

 Grcec, t. 755-758.— J acq., El. Austr., t. 361 

 (Tetragonolobus). — Deless., Icon. Sel., Hi. t. 

 66. — Beot., Phyt. Lusit., t. 53. — Torr. & Gb., 

 Fl. N. Amer., i. 325. — Webb, Phyt. Canar., ii. 

 80, t. 60-65. — Cambess., Enutn. PL Balear., t. 

 15.— Jafb. & Spach, III. PL Orient., t. 96 

 (Ononis). — Hook. & Arn., Beech. Yoy. Bot., i. 

 8. — A. Gray, in Proceed. Acad. Philad. (1863), 

 351. — Hook., Icon., t. 754, 757.— Fenzl, in 



