i 



DIADELPHIA— DECANDRIA. Lotus. 315 



smooth, stout and firm, obscurely angular, each bearing an um- 

 bel of from 3 to 6 bright yellow ^OM;ers, accompanied by a ter- 

 nate leaf without stipulas. In starved plants the Jlowers are so- 

 litary. Partial stalks and calyx all over silky, with more or less 

 abundant, short, close hairs ; the calyx-teeth lanceolate, tapering, 

 spreading, shorter than the tube, somewhat hairy, with wide 

 rounded interstices. Separate portion of each filament of con- 

 siderable length, the longest dilated upwards. Legumes nearly 

 erect, or but slightly spreading, smooth, dotted, cylindrical, 

 without any depression or channel, both sutures rather promi- 

 nent, forming a ridge along each margin. 

 I can find no account of any thing approaching this species except 

 L. pedunculatus, Cavan. Ic. t. 164, the plate and description of 

 which are not very discriminative, but its stem is said to be 

 erect, 3 feet high, and every part of the plant is perfectly smooth. 

 L. decumbens grows in Switzerland and the Levant, as well as 

 on the sandy shores of Sicily. Most botanists have supposed it a 

 variety of the corniculatus ; Linnseus and Solander confounded it 

 with the following. 



4. L. angiistissimus . Slender Bird's-foot-trefoil. 



Flowers solitary, or in pairs. Stems much branched, pros- 

 trate, tubular. Legumes two-edged, very slender, some- 

 what compressed. Calyx loosely hairy ; teeth fringed, 

 twice the length of the tube. 



L. angustissimus. Linn.Sp.PlAmO. Willd.v.3.\SS9. Marsch. 

 Taur.-Cauc. v. 2. 220 ; from the author. 



L. difliisus. Fl.Br.794. Engl. Bot. v. 13. t. 925. Covip.ed. 4. 124. 

 Willd.v.3. 1389. 



L. corniculata, siliquis singularibus, vel binis, tenuis. Bauh. Hist. 

 v.2.356.f; good. 



L. annua oligoceratos, siliquis singularibus binis ternisve. Moris. 

 v.2.\75.sect.2.t. 18./. I. 



L. pentaphyllos minor hirsutus, siliqua angustissima. Bauh. Pin. 

 332. 



Trifolium corniculatum minus, pilosum. Bauh. Prodr. 144 ; with 

 an excellent description. 



In meadows towards the sea, on the south and western coasts of 

 England. 



On the rocky beach at Hastings, Sussex. Mr. Dickson. At Kings- 

 teignton and Bishopsteignton, Devonshire. Dean of Bristol. In 

 a meadow near St. Vincent's rocks, Bristol, plentifully. Mr. D. 

 Turner and Mr. Sowerby. 



Annual. May, June. 



Smaller in general than any of the foregoing, its pubescence con- 

 sisting of fine, long, loose and spreading hairs, like those of 

 L. major, but far more constant and abundant. Root branched, 

 fibrous, beset with small tubercles, certainly annual, not peren- 



