26 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



SPECIES I V.-ME Die AGO DENTlCULATA. WtM 

 Plate CCCXXXVIII. 

 M. polycarpa, Willd. Gr. & Godr. FI. de Fr. VoL I. p. 389. 



No rootstock. Leaflets oblanceolate-obcordate, not blotched. 

 Stipules with long slender laciniaj on the margins. Flowers few, 

 in long-stalked, lax sub-umbellate heads. Pods coiled into a spiral 

 making from 2 to 4 turns, orbicular-discoid; coils reticulated, 

 becoming very slightly smaller towards the apex, with strong an- 

 astomosing veins on the faces ; their back narrow, with a single 

 dorsal nerve and a broad lateral furrow on each side of it (i. e. 

 between the dorsal and extra-marginal nerves). Spines or tuber- 

 cles in 2 rows, divaricate, hooked at the end or nearly straight. 

 Seeds numerous, reniform, notched at the hilum. Plant glabrous, 

 or nearly so. 



Var. a, vtdgaris. 



M. denticulata, Willd. 



Spines subulate, equalling half the diameter of the coUs. 



Var. /3, apiculata. 



M. apiculata, Willd. Sp. PI. Vol. III. p. 1414. Koch, Syn. Fl. Germ, et Helv. ed. ii. 



p. 180. 



Spines very short, straight. 



On sandy banks and dry chalky waste places. Not un- 

 common in the South and East of England — in Devon, Dorset, 

 Hants, Sussex, Kent, Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk. It has occurred 

 in several other places, but doubtless introduced either with ballast 

 or among continental seed. 



England, [Scotland,] Ireland. Annual or biennial. Spring 

 and Summer. 



Stems several from the crown of the root, prostrate, 3 inches to 

 2 feet long, with 4 longitudinal furrows. Leaves stalked ; leaflets 

 •J to 1 inch long, wedge-shaped or inversely deltoid, rounded and 

 denticulated in tlie apical half, notched at the apex, with a slender 

 tooth in the centre of the notch. Stipules half-triangular-sagit- 

 tate, cut into numerous long slender segments. Peduncles axillary, 

 2- to 10-flowered. Flowers bright-yellow, about g inch long, um- 

 bellate, on very short pedicels. Calyx-teeth triangular-subulate, 

 longer than the tube. Pod olive, about \ inch across, regularly 

 coiled, the coils becoming very little smaller towards tlie apex, 

 their sides netted with very prominent elevated veins ; back of the 



