134 LEGTJMINOS^E. (PULSE FAMILY). 



pressed, often curved, clothed with rough glands or short prickles, scarcely de- 

 hiscent, few-seeded. The flower, &c, otherwise as in Astragalus. — Long peren- 

 nial root sweet (whence the name, from jXvkvs, sweet, and pi$a, root) ; herbage 

 glandular-viscid ; leaves odd-pinnate, with minute stipules ; flowers in axillary 

 spikes, white or bluish. 



1. G. lepiddta, Nutt. (Wild Liquorice.) Tall (2° -3° high) ; leaf- 

 lets 15-19, oblong-lanceolate, mucronate-pointed, sprinkled with little scales 

 when young, and with corresponding dots when old ; spikes peduncled, short ; 

 flowers whitish ; pods oblong, beset with hooked prickles, so as to resemble the 

 fruit of Xanthium on a smaller scale. — Vicinity of Buffalo, New York, on the 

 sands of the shore, probably drifted from its native northwest regions ; but per- 

 fectly established, G. W. Clinton. 



17. iESCHYNOMENE, L. Sensitive Joint- Vetch. 



Calyx 2-lipped ; the upper lip 2-, the lower 3-cleft. Standard roundish : keel 

 boat-shaped. Stamens diadelphous in two sets of 5 each. Pod flattened, com- 

 posed of several square easily separable joints. — Leaves, odd-pinnate, with sev- 

 eral pairs of leaflets, sometimes sensitive, as if shrinking from the touch (whence 

 the name, from alo-x vvo H-* vr li being ashamed). 



1. JE. hispida, Willd. Erect, rough-bristly annual ; leaflets 37-51, lin- 

 ear ; racemes few-flowered ; pod stalked, 6 - 10-jointed. — Along rivers, S. Penn. 

 and southward. Aug. — Flowers yellow, reddish externally. 



18. HEDYSARUM, Tourn. Hedysarum. 



Calyx 5-cleft, the lobes awl-shaped and nearly equal. Keel nearly straight, 

 obliquely truncate, not appendaged, longer than the wings. Stamens diadel- 

 phous, 5 & 1. Pod flattened, composed of several equal-sided separable round- 

 ish joints connected in the middle. — Perennial herbs: leaves odd-pinnate. 

 (Name composed of rjbvs, sweet, and apafxa, smell.) 



1. H. boreale, Nutt. Leaflets 13-21, oblong or lanceolate, nearly gla- 

 brous ; stipules scaly, united opposite the petiole; raceme of many deflexed pur- 

 ple flowers ; standard shorter than the keel ; joints of the pod 3 or 4, smooth, 

 reticulated. — Mountain above Willoughby Lake, Vermont, A. Wood, &c. St. 

 John's River, Maine, G. L. Goodale. Also northward. 



19. DESMODIUM, DC. Tick-Trefoil. 



Calyx usually more or less 2-lipped. Standard obovate : wings adherent to 

 the straight or straightish and usually truncate keel, by means of a little trans- 

 verse appendage on each side of the latter. Stamens diadelphous, 9 & 1, or 

 monadelphous below. Pod flat, deeply lobed on the lower margin, separating 

 into few or many flat reticulated joints (mostly roughened with minute hooked 

 hairs, by which they adbere to the fleece of animals or to clothing). — Perennial 

 herbs, with pinnately 3-foliolatc (rarely 1-foliolate) leaves, stipellate. Flowers 

 (in summer) in axillary or terminal racemes, often panicled, and 2 or 3 from 

 each bract, purple or purplish, often turning green in withering. Stipules and 



