22 BULLETIN 428, U. S. DEPAETMENT OF AGEICULTURE. 



It will be noted that in certain cases numbers are referred to under 

 more than one group. This is explained by the fact that many of 

 the introductions as they were received from abroad contained sev- 

 eral forms of the species. The descriptions given under each group 

 are brief, but they are as full as the nature of the material warrants. 

 The types or groups are as follows : 



Gkoxjp 1. — Prostrate. — Plants of this group are characterized by broad to very 

 broad crowns, which have a tendency toward the development of barren 

 centers after two or three years. (In many cases 4-year-old plants have 

 crowns 36 inches in diameter.) The plants are of prostrate or procumbent 

 habit of growth and are decidedly spreading. The leaves are about aver- 

 age in size and shape, but in the more narrow crowned plants are inclined 

 to be of a darker color than the average for the species. The flowers are 

 of a deep yellow color and inclined to be small, late blooming, and some- 



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Fig. 9. — Individual plant of Medicago falcata, S. P. I. No. 20725, as viewed from beneath. 

 The small whitish stems are rhizomes. 



what scantily produced. The seed is produced scantily or only fairly 

 abundantly. In the extremely broad crowned plants the stems are numer- 

 ous (as many as 1,600 per plant in plants 4 years old), and individual 

 plants having fine, short stems are common. In the more narrow crowned 

 plants, the stems are inclined to be long and fine and less numerous than in 

 the very broad crowned forms (approximately 300 in plants 4 years old). 

 Plants representing this group are common in S. P. I. Nos. 20717, 20725, 

 and 24454 and are well illustrated in figures 7, 8, and 9. 

 Geotip 2. — Decumhent. — Plants of this group have medium broad crowns, which 

 frequently become barren at the center at the end of a few years. (Crowns 

 of 14 inches in diameter are common in 4-year-old plants.) Habit of 

 growth, decumbent to procumbent ; flower, pod, and seed characters vari- 



