316 DIADELPHIA— DECANDRIA. Medicago. 



nial. Stems procumbent, or partly ascending, roundish, branch- 

 ed, densely leafy, very hairy, from 6 to 10 inches long, with a 

 small internal cavity destitute of pith. Lea/lets and siipulas 

 ovate, pointed, rather glaucous, hairy on both sides. Flower- 

 stalks spreading, weak and slender, once or twice as long as the 

 leaves, hairy, each bearing for the most part two, rather small, 

 bright yellow,^owers, sometimes but one, very rarely three, with 

 a ternate leaf at the base of their partial stalks. Cat. widely 

 funnel-shaped ; its teeth linear, narrow, green, twice as long as 

 the tube, copiously fringed with long spreading hairs, totally 

 unlike the calyx of the last species. Filam. all rather dilated 

 upward. Legumes spreading, cylindrical, or slightly compressed, 

 with prominent sutures, smooth, of a shining brown, very slen- 

 der, often transversely undulated, from the projection of their 

 numerous orbicular seeds. 

 A Montpellier specimen of this plant from Sauvages, bearing the 

 synonym of C. Bauhin, is the original authority for L. angustis- 

 simus. To this Linnseus had pinned a nearly smooth one of tlie 

 last species, which Solander in the Banksian herbarium has taken 

 for the true angustissimus, calling our present plant L. diffusus, 

 and this great authority misled me. A scrutiny of the Linnaean 

 specimens, and their marks, with the descriptions, synonyms, 

 and history of L. angustissimus, have satisfied me that this is our 

 diffusus; and it is never too late to correct a manifest error, 

 especially as the original name is much the best. 



368. MEDICAGO. Medick. 



Linn. Gen. 389. Juss. 356. Fl. Br. 795. Sm. in Rees's Cycl. v. 23. 



Tourn.t.23l. Lam.t.6]2. Gcertn. t.l55. 

 Medica. Tourn.t. 231. 



Cal. tubular, with 5 direct, acute, nearly equal teeth, per- 

 manent, unchanged. Cor. of 5 petals, deciduous ; stand- 

 ard ovate, ascending, undivided, with a short broad claw; 

 wings obovate, cohering by their lower edges ; keel of 2 

 combined petals with separate claws, oblong, obtuse, de- 

 pressed by the swelling germen, and finally spreading 

 widely from the standard. Filavi. 10 ; 9 united almost to 

 their summits into one split compressed tube ; the tenth 

 capillary, distinct. Anth. small, roundish. Germ, stalked, 

 oblong, compressed, incurved or spiral, enfolded by the 

 filaments, starting elastically from the keel, and forcing 

 back the standard, terminating in a short, awl-sliaped, 

 straight, ascending style. Stigma terminal, minute, sim- 

 ple. Legume compressed, inflexed, falcate, or spiral with 

 numerous convolutions, of 1 cell and 2 valves. Seeds se- 

 veral, often numerous, kidney-shaped, smooth. 



