CLASS XVII. ORDER ill. } LOTUS. 983 
involucre. Calyx campanulate, pale, sub-membranous, smooth, ten 
ribbed, teeth short, lanceolate, acute. Corolla pale pink, the keel 
short, with a slender claw, the wings ovate, obtuse, notched at the 
base, the claw slender, the vexillum oblong, narrowed towards the 
base. Legume as long again as the calyx, compressed, smooth, dark 
brown, curved in a faleate manner, and containing eight oval seeds. 
Habitat—Sandy pastures, not very common; found chiefly on the 
eastern coast, about Edinburgh, Scotland; Killiney Hill, and by the 
Murrow of Wicklow. 
Annual ; flowering in June. 
This small plant is rendered more difficult to find, from its spread- 
ing itself close to the ground. It has been joimed with the genus 
Trifolium ; but the structure of its flowers and fruit separate it 
from that genus, and its habit is not that of the one to which it is 
now allied. 
GENUS XIV. LO'TUS.—Linn. Bird’sfoot Trefoil. 
Nat. Ord. Paprtrona'crEa. LInn. 
Gen. Cuar. Calyx tubular, or campanulate, five cleft or five toothed. 
Corolla with a beaked keel, and wings about as long as the 
vexillum. Stamens diadelphous. Legumes cylindrical, or com- 
pressed, linear, somewhat spongy within, valves curved spirally 
on bursting. Seeds mostly numerous.—‘‘ Name supposed to be 
one of the three kinds (the herbaceous) of the Awros, of the 
Greeks.’— Hook. 
1. L. cornicula'tus, Linn. (Fig. 1140.) Common Bird’sfoot Trefoit. 
Stem prostrate, smooth or hairy; heads depressed, umbellate, on 
long peduncles, six to ten flowered; calyx campanulate, the teeth 
awl-shaped, with a triangular base as long as the tube; claw of the 
vexillum inflated above ; leaves obovate, or linear, smooth or hairy ; 
legume linear, cylindrical, straight, smooth. 
%. vulgaris. The whole plant smooth, or nearly so; leaves 
obovate. 
L. corniculatus, Linn.—English Botany, t. 2090.—Hooker, British 
Flora, ed. 4. vol. i. p. 278.—English Flora, vol. ili. p. 813.—Lindley, 
Synopsis, p. 81. 
B. villosus. The whole plant clothed with long spreading hairs ; 
leaves obovate. 
L. corniculatus, y.—De Cand. Prod. 2. p. 214.—Hooker, British 
Flora, ed. 4. vol. i. p. 278. : 
L. villosus, Thuill. 
y- ciliatus. Leaves obovate, ciliated, as well as the calyx, with 
long slender hairs. 
L. ciliatus, Tenor.—Prod. p. 44. 
