306 NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



culate or muricated ; either indehiscent jointed, or nearly continuous 

 (joints scarcely marked). Seeds ovate or transversely oblong, exaril- 

 late ; bilum lateral ; embryo fleshy ; cotyledons contorted folded. 

 — Herbs, almost stemless or decumbent ; leaves alternate simple, 

 tapering for a considerable distance at base into petiole; stipules 2, 

 lateral, adnate to petiole ; flowers 1 nutant, solitary or few subum- 

 bellate ; peduncles subaxillary, each with a bud ; bracts minute ; 

 bractlets {Southern Europe, western Asia, northern Africa:'). 



149. Hippocrepis L. 3 — Receptacle shortly obconical, lined by a 

 disk. Calyx gamosepalous, usually membranous ; teeth 5, nearly 

 equal or 2 superior connate to a variable height. Petals long-ungui- 

 culate ; standard suborbicular ; claw at base rather thick and terete 

 or subappendiculate within ; wings falcate-obovate or oblong ; keel 

 curved beaked. Stamens 10, 9 connate into a sheath cleft above ; 

 vexillary stamen free ; filaments at apex free and more or less dilated ; 

 anthers uniform. Germen sessile cc-ovulate ; style inflexed, 

 rather compressed ; stigma more or less globose, subterminal. 

 Legume much piano-compressed or more rarely subterete, often 

 arched or subterminal ; dorsal margin deeply excavated at each 

 seed, straight or scarcely depressed between seeds and there trans- 

 versely separating into 1 -seeded horseshoe-shaped segments. Seeds 

 arched exarillate ; hilum median ventral ; albumen thin ; cotyledons 

 arched; radicle closely inflexed, accumbent. — Herbs or undershrubs, 

 usually glabrous ; leaves imparipinnate ; leaflets co, entire exstipel- 

 late, stipules leaf-like or membranous, more rarely scarcely visible ; 

 flowers 4 nutant, in spurious axillary pedunculate umbels ; more 

 rarely pedicels 1, 2 at each axil, common peduncle nearly absent; 

 bracts small or inconspicuous; bractlets (Europe, western Asia, 

 northern Africa?). 



150. Stylosanthes Sw. 6 — Eeceptacle long cylindrical tubular, 



1 Yellow, often small. * Yellow. 



2 Species, about 6. Viv., Fl. Lihyc, t. 19, 5 Species about 12. Jacq., Fl. Austr., t. 431 ; 

 fig. 4— Sibth., Fl. arcec, t. 718, 719.— Gken. Ie. Ear., t. 149.— Ten., Fl. Neap., t. 69.— 

 & Gode., Fl. de Fr., i. 492, 509.— Baker, in MOMS, Fl. Sard.,t. 66, 67.— Sibth., Fl. arcec, 

 Oliv. Fl. Trop. Afr., ii. 139. t . 716, 717.— Boiss., Toy., t. 55.— Gben. & 



3 Gen., n. 885.— J., Gen., 361.— Lame., Bid., Gode., Fl. de Fr., i. 500, 509.— Bot. Mag., t. 

 iii. 131; Suppl., iii. 51; III, t. 630.— DC., 427.— Wale., Rep., i. 724; ii. 888; v. 519; 

 Prodr., ii. 312.— Endl., Gen., n. 6588.— B. H., Ann., i. 245; ii. 406; iii. 850; iv. 532. 



Gen., 510, n. 141.— Ferrum equinum T., Inst., 6 In Act. Holm. (1789), 296, t. 9, 11 ; Prodr., 



400, t, 225. 108; Fl. Ind. Occ, 1280, t. 25.— Lamk., Diet., 



