lkgx'mixifer.t;. 71 



inflexion of the upper or ventral suture (that to which the seeds 

 are attached). Seeds numerous. 



Herhs, often acaulescent, with the leaves always pinnate, with 

 an odd terminal leaflet. Flowers purple, blue, yellow, white, 

 ochreous, or yellow, in stalked axUlary compact racemose heads. 



This genus derives its name from the two Greek words olvc {oxus), sharp, and 

 rpoffif {tropis), a keel, in reference to the keel of the flower ending in an exserted 

 mucrone on the back of the apex. 



SPECIES I.— OX YTRO PIS HALLERI. Bunge. 

 PL.VTE CCCLXXIII. 



Bah. Man. Brit. Bot. ed. v. p. 81. Koch, Syn. Fl. Germ, et Helv. ed. ii. p. 200. 



Gr. & Godr. Fl. de Fr. Vol. I. p. 449. 

 O. uralensis, D. C. Benlk Handbook Brit. Fl. p. 174. Hook & Am. Brit. Fl. ed. viii. 



p. 108. 

 Astragalus uralensis, Sm. Eng. Bot. No. 4GG. 



E-ootstock branched, many-headed. Leaves all radical, with 

 numerous pairs of elliptical acute leaflets, densely covered with 

 silky hairs. Scapes erect, longer than the leaves, clothed with 

 spreading hairs. Flowers in a compact oval head, elongating in 

 fruit into a short raceme. Bracts narrowly elliptical-lanceolate, 

 as long as the calyx-tube. Pods erect, inflated, ovoid-cylindrical, 

 tapering and recurved at the apex ; upper suture much inflexed, 

 forming an imperfect dissepiment reaching to the central axis of 

 the pod ; lower or dorsal suture winged internally, and so forming 

 an imperfect partition, w hich nearly meets that proceeding from 

 the upper suture. 



In hilly pastures. Very local. I have only seen it at Queens- 

 ferry, in Fifeshire, where the plant is now probably extinct, as in 

 1818 I saw only one patch, about a foot from the edge of the clifl', 

 wliere quarrying operations were in active progress. A specimen 

 has also been sent me from Glen Turret, Perthshire. It is also 

 reported as occurring in the counties of Wigton, Forfar, Argyle, 

 Hoss, and Sutherland. 



Scotland. Perennial. Summer. 



Rootstock almost woody, many-headed, each head producing a 

 tuft of leaves 2 to 5 inches long, with 9 to 15 pairs of leaflets and an 

 odd terminal one; leaflets \ to ^ inch long, varying from strapshaped- 

 elliptical to oval-elliptical, usually broadest rather below the middle, 

 so as to approach to lanceolate or ovate, very thickly clothed with 

 short silky hairs, which are most abundant on the under side. 



