GG ENGLISH BOTANY. 



In pastures, heaths, and waste places, Var. a very common, 

 and generally distributed ; var. (i near the sea ; var. y reported 

 from the Isle of Wight, Higham and Sandgate, Kent, and Bud- 

 leigh Salterton, Devon, but of this I have seen no British 

 specimens. 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Summer. 



Taproot very long. Root stock producing a few subterranean 

 stolons and dividing into numerous branches, nearly all of which 

 spring from the same point. Stems very numerous, spreading in 

 a circle so as to form roundish tufts, ascending from a curved 

 prostrate base, 3 to 12 inches long. Leaves shortly stalked, pin- 

 nately trifoliate ; leaflets 5 to ^ inch long, wedge-shaped at the base, 

 rounded at the apex, entire. Stipules ovate, often acute, as large 

 as the leaflets, sub-sessile. Peduncles axillary, 2 to 4 inches long. 

 Flower-heads with a 3-foliate bract at the base. Plowers f to f inch 

 long, bright yellow, streaked and often tinged with crimson, especially 

 wlien in bud, turning greenish in drying, on short pedicels, spreading 

 in a lax umbellate head. Calyx-tube funnel-shaped, 10-nerved at 

 the base, but only those which form the midribs of the teeth extend- 

 ing to the apex ; 2 upper teeth triangular, the rest subulate from 

 a triangular base. Standard with an orbicular spreading-reflexed 

 lamina; claw dilated and arched a little below its junction with 

 the lamina ; keel with a long acuminate beak directed towards the 

 standard. Pods spreading horizontally, f to 1| inch long, brown 

 when ripe, faintly channelled along the upper suture, keeled beneath. 

 Seeds numerous, blackish-brown, nearly smooth, sub-orbicular, with 

 a small circular hilum. Valves of the pod twisting on their own axis 

 and remaining attached at the base. Plant bright-green, slightly 

 glaucous, varying from glabrous to hairy. 



Common Birds-foot Trefoil. 



French, Lotier Cornicide. German, Gemeiner HomMee. 



We must all be able to recall this pretty little plant with its bright yellow flowers, 

 as forming part of the soft carpeting of almost every down and meadow-land we have 

 trodden. So small does it become in its dwarf state on commons and heaths, that it 

 appears almost as if the flowers spring out of the ground without a stalk ; but in more 

 favourable positions it attains a considerable amount of dignity, and waves in the wind 

 on a stem of its own of some length. It is not to be despised in pasturage for sheep, 

 and in hay it is an improvement ; but it has been strongly recommended by Anderson 

 both for fodder and hay in his agricultural essays, under the erroneous name of Milk 

 Vetch. 



The common vulgar names of this little plant are 'numerous. Amongst them we 

 find it called Butter-jags, Shoes-and-Stockings, Ladies Slipper, Cross-toes^ Crow-toea, 

 and in Yorkshire Cheesecake-grass. 



