290 DIADELPHIA— DECANDRIA. Hippocrepis. 



slender, ascending. Stigma capitate, naked. Legume 

 curved, compressed, jointed, separating finally at the 

 joints, each of which remains closed, containing a solitary 

 roundish seed. 

 Small, mostly annual, herbs. Leaves pinnate, with an odd 

 leaflet; rarely ternate only. <S'^?p?^/gs undivided. P/. either 

 capitate or umbellate, reddish or yellow, minute. 



1. O.perpuxillus. Common Bird's-foot. 



Leaves pinnate. Flowers capitate, accompanied by a leaf. 

 Legumes incurved, beaded. 



O.perpusillus. Linn. Sp.PlAM9. W^j/W.d. 3.1155. Fl.Br.777. 

 Engl.Bot.v.6.t.369. Curt. Lond.fasc. 6. t 53. Hook.Scot.2l6. 

 Ornithopodium n. 393. Hall. Hist. v. l.\7 . 

 O. radice nodosa. Raii Syn. 326. 

 O. minus. Ger. -Em. 1241./. 

 O. tuberosum. Dalech. Hist.4S6.f. 



In sandy or gravelly pastures. 



Annual. May. 



Root fibrous, annual, though, as Dillenius in Ray's Sytiopsis re- 

 cords, after Mr. Doody, it is sometimes propagated by subterra- 

 neous lateral granulations, or knobs, in the manner of a potatoe, 

 in which case the seeds are abortive. Similar knobs occur in 

 ricia laihyroides, and other papilionaceous plants. The stems, 

 often numerous, are procumbent, from 3 to 10 or 12 inches long, 

 furrowed, downy, leafy. Leaves alternate, of from 5 to 1 or 12 

 pair of small, uniform, elliptical leaflets, hairy, especially at the 

 back, with a terminal one about the same size and figure. Sti- 

 pulas very small, the upper ones lanceolate or awl-shaped, 

 scarcely visible; lower linear, acute, united laterally to the foot- 

 stalks. Fl. 3 or 4 in each little head, or tuft, closely accompa- 

 nied by a pinnate leaf, of but few leaflets. Cal. downy, colour- 

 ed. Standard and wings white, beautifully veined with crimson ; 

 keel greenish. Legumes pointed, curved upwards, finely hairy, 

 wrinkled lengthwise when dry, their bead-like joints elliptical, 

 moderately compressed. 



O. majus, Bauh. Pin. 350. Ger. Em. 1241./. 3, is supposed to be 

 a larger variety of perpusillus, different from O. intermedins of 

 Roth and Hoffmann. Roth describes the latter as having stems 

 2 or 3 feet long, flowers thrice the size of perpusillus, and a very 

 hairy calyx. Nothing answering to this account has been ob- 

 served in England. 



363. HIPPOCREPIS. Horse-shoe- vetch. 



Linn. Gen. 381. Jwsi. 361. Fl.Br.777. Lam.t.630. 

 Ferrum equinum. Tourn. t. 225. 



