50 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



Section III.— TRIFOLIASTEUM. Z>. C. 



Flower-heads axillary and terminal, or all axillary, stalked or 

 sessile, sub-globose or oblong. Flowers numerous, more or less 

 distinctly stalked. Pedicels with bracts at the base. Calyx not 

 becoming vesicular in fruit, without a callous or hairy ring in the 

 throat ; teeth equal, or the upper ones longer. Corolla persistent, 

 rarely deciduous, purple, rose, or white ; standard often folded over 

 the fruit, and retaining its form, but becoming scarious and striated. 

 Pod sessile or slightly stipitate within the calyx, often exserted, 2- to 

 ■•6-seeded. 



SPECIES XII.— TRIFO LIU M GLOMERATUM. iinn. 

 Plate CCCLVIII. 



Rootstock none. Stems numerous, slightly flexuous, prostrate 

 or ascending, nearly simple or slightly branched, the central one 

 elongate. Leaves rather shortly stalked; leaflets obovate, denti- 

 culated, rounded at the apex ; veins very prominent, the lateral ones 

 straight. Stipules adnate for less than half their length, with the 

 free portion ovate, contrncted into a long point ; those which 

 enclose the flower-heads dilated. Flower-heads axillary and ter- 

 minal, sessile, solitary (or the terminal ones sometimes in pairs), 

 not approximate, globular. Flowers sub-sessile. Calyx-tube oblong, 

 10-ribbed, glabrous, open at the throat ; teeth ovate-acuminate, sub- 

 spinescent, auriclcd at the base and reticulated, with a moderately 

 thick central nerve, all nearly equal, shorter than the calyx-tube, 

 at length spreading-recurved. Corolla longer than the calyx-teeth. 

 Pod 2-seeded, shorter than the calyx-tube. Plant glabrous. 



On dry, gravelly, and sandy commons, pastures, and waste 

 ground. Rather rare. It has been reported from the counties of 

 Devon, Dorset, Hants, Kent, Surrey, Middlesex, Suffolk, Norfolk, 

 Leicester, Somerset, Denbigh, Carmarthen, and Glamorgan; but 

 the records of its occurrence in the West of England require to be 



confirmed. 



England. Annual. Early Summer. 



Stems slender, spreading in a circle, 2 to 12 inches long. Leaf- 

 lets \io\ inch long, shaped like a boy's, kite, sharply toothed at 

 the margins from the apex nearly to the base. Flower-heads rather 

 distant, about \ inch across, rather dense. Flowers sub-sessile, about 

 \ inch long, pale bluish-purple ; standard becoming scarious, stri- 



