LEGUMIKIFER.E. 51 



ated, and not shrivelling after flowering. Pod about as long as 

 the calyx-tube. Seeds 2, often reduced to 1 by abortion. 



The smoothness of the plant, the globular heads, the shorter 

 calyx-teeth enlarged immediately above the base, and the purplish 

 flowers readily distinguish this plant from T. scabrum. 



Smooth Round-headed Trefoil. 



French, Trcfle Agglmtiere. 



SPECIES XIIL— TRIPOLI UM SUPFOCATUM. Linn. 



Platk CCCLIX. 



Eootstock none. Stems numerous, prostrate, simple or slightly 

 branched, the central one extremely short. Leaves on very long 

 stalks ; leaflets wedgeshapcd - obovate, truncate or emarginate 

 at the apex, denticulated in the apical half; veins rather promi- 

 nent, the lateral ones straight. Stipules adnate for about two- 

 thirds of their length, ovate, abruptly acuminated; those which 

 enclose the flower-heads enlarged. Flower-heads terminal and 

 axillary, sessile, solitary, approximate, sometimes confluent, ovoid. 

 Flowers sub-sessile. Calyx-tube bell-shaped, faintly 10-nerved, 

 sub-glabrous, open at the throat ; teeth lanceolate-acuminate, not 

 spinescent, not auricled at the base, with a slender central nerve, 

 all nearly equal, at length spreading-recurved as long as the calyx- 

 tube. Corolla shorter than the calyx-teeth. Pod 2-seeded. Plant 

 glabrous. 



On sandy and gravelly pastures and waste places. Rare. In 

 the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Hants, Sussex, Kent, Suffolk, 

 Korfolk ; also in Wales. 



England. Annual. Early Summer. 



Stems prostrate, spreading in a circle, 1 to 7 inches long, often 

 half-buried in the sand, the central one reduced to a sessile head of 

 flowers. Leaves on stalks ly to 2 inches long ; leaflets j to f inch 

 long. Stipules thin and membranous. Heads about J inch across, 

 generally so crowded as to conceal the stem, which they clothe 

 from the base to the summit. Flowers lax, sub-sessile, i inch 

 long, whitish ; standard becoming scarious and slightly striate, 

 but retaining its form much less distinctly than in T. glomeratum. 

 Calyx-tube and teeth much less rigid than in the four preceding 

 species. Pod enclosed in the calyx, containing 2 seeds. 



This plant is easily distinguishable from all the British Trefoils 

 by its dense masses of flower-heads, which sometimes appear to 

 be in spikes, from the separate heads actually touching each 

 other, although each one lies in the axil of a separate leaf. These 



