160 THE PEAFLOWEE TETRE. 



branches all round or chiefly or entirely in two opposite lines ; in dry situ- 

 ations many of the small branches end in a thorn. Leaflets obovate or 

 oblong, the lateral ones smaller or sometimes wanting. Flowers sessile or 

 shortly stalked, solitary, on short branches, or forming short, leaiy racemes. 

 Flowers piuk, the standard streaked with a deeper shade. Pod shorter or 

 rather longer than the calyx, with 2 or 3 seeds. 



In barren pastures and poor iU-cultivated fields, throughout Europe and 

 central and Eussian Asia, except the extreme north. Common in Britain, 

 Fl. summer and autumn. A glabrous, more erect, and thorny variety ts 

 often admitted as a species, under the name of O. antiquorum or O. cam- 

 pestris. It is more common in the south of Europe than in Britain. 



2. Small Ononis. Ononis reclinata, Linn. 

 (Eng. Bot. Suppl. t. 2838.) 



An erect annual, 3 or 4 inches high, slightly hau-y, and often viscid, the 

 lateral branches decumbent at the base. Leaflets small, varying from 

 broadly obovate to very narrow. Flowers small, pale pink, hanging from 

 short erect pedicels, forming short, terminal, leafy racemes. Petals scarcely 

 exceeding the calyx, or shorter. Pod rather smaller, containing 10 or 

 12 seeds. 



On sands and dry banks near the sea, very common round the Mediter- 

 ranean, and here and there on the shores of the Atlantic, up to the Channel 

 Islands, and again near the Mull of Galloway, on the south-west coast of 

 Scotland. Fl. early summer. 



V. MEDXCK. MEDICAGO. 



Herbs (with one exotic shrubby species), with leaves pinnately trifoliolate ; 

 the leaflets usually toothed ; the leafy stipules adhering to the leafstalks ; the 

 flowers small, in short spikes or loose heads, on axillary peduncles. Calyx 

 5-toothed. Keel obtuse. Stamens diadelphous, the upper one entirely free. 

 Pod smaU, with few seeds, very much curved or spirally twisted, and inde- 

 hiscent. 



A rather numerous genus in the Mediterranean region and a portion of 

 central Asia, with a few species extending as weeds over a great portion of 

 the globe. To determine the annual species it is absolutely necessary to 

 have the fruit, as some cannot be distingiushed by any other character. 



Perennials, with conspicuous purple or pale yellow flowers. 



Sterna mostly erect. Flower pui'ple; Pod forming 2 or 3 spires . 2. ImcernM. 

 Stems decumbent. Flower pale yellow. Pod not forming a 



complete spire 1. Sickle M. 



Annuals, with very small, bright yellow flowers. 



Pod small, 1-seeded, not forming a complete spire 3. Slack M. 



Pod several-seeded, spirally twisted, edged with prickles. 



Plant downy. Stipules nearly entire 6. Sur M. 



Plant nearly glabrous. Stipules finely toothed. 

 Pod nearly globular, of 3 or -1 spires, farrowed at the edge be- 

 tween the prickles 5 . Spotted If. 



Pod of 2 or 3 flat, loose, strongly -veined spires, not furrowed 



at the edge 4. Denticulate M. 



The shrubby M. arborea, and one or two annual secies from southern 

 Europe, have been occasionally cultivated in gardens as cviriosities, espe- 

 cially the so-called Snail-jJlant (M. scutellata). 



