312 LEGUMINOSiE. 



laeiniately toothed or pinnatifid; involucre obsolete; flowers 3 to 5. — 

 Alkaline plains: Byron and Bethany in the Lower San Joaquin; 

 Colusa Junction in the Sacramento Valley, Brandegee (the foliage 

 curiously diverse, the leaves linear and entire or extravagantly 

 toothed or laciniate). 



12. MELl LOTUS Juss. Sweet Clover. 

 Annual or biennial herbs with pinnately 3-foliolate leaves and 

 toothed leaflets. Flowers small, yellow or white, in spike-like 

 racemes on axillary peduncles, in bud erect, soon deflexed and not 

 again becoming erect. Calyx 5-toothed, the teeth subulate. Petals 

 falling after flowering, free from the stamen tube. Stamens dia- 

 delphous, the upper one entirely free. Pod ovoid, coriaceous, 

 straight, in ours wrinkled, scarcely dehiscent, 1 to 2-seeded. (Greek 

 meli, honey, and lotos, the ancient name of some plant belonging to 

 this family.) 



Flowers white; plants 3 to 6 ft. high . . . 1. J/, alba. 



Flowers yellow ; plants 1)4 to 3 ft. high . . . . . 2. il/. Indica. 



1. M. alba Lam. White Melilot. Erect, simple below, 

 branching above, 3 to 6 ft. high; leaflets broadly or narrowly 

 oblong, tapering to both ends, or widest above the middle, serrate 

 except at the very base, over J to IJ in. long; flowers white, 2 lines 

 long, in racemes 1 to 2 in. long; standard slightly longer than the 

 wings. 



Piare in the Bay Eegion, occurring onlj' in river beds: San Leandro 

 Creek, Dary; Napa Eiver, near St. Helena; common in moist valleys 

 northward. Naturalized from the Old World as also the next. ' 



2. M. Indica All. Yellow Melilot. Main stem erect, \\ to 

 3 ft. high, with many rather spreading branches from above the base; 

 leaflets broadly or narrowly cuneate-obovate, or dentate or serrate but 

 entire below the middle, retuse at apex, 1 in. long or more, those of 

 the lateral branchlets or at the summit smaller; racemes IJ to 2 in. 

 long, longer than the peduncles; flowers yellow, IJ lines long; wing 

 and keel petals oblong, the latter slightly broader. 



Very common. Apr.-May. 



13. MEDICAGO L. Mkdick. 

 Herbs with pinnately 3-foliolate leaves and usually toothed leaflets. 

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

 Corolla falling after flowering. Calyx 5-toothed. Keel obtuse. 

 Stamens diadelphous, the upper one entirely free. Pod small, 1 to 

 several-seeded, incurved or coiled or spirally twisted, and indehiscent. 

 (Prom the Greek Medike, name given by Diocorides to a plant from 

 Media' perhaps Lucern. All the species have been naturalized from 

 Europe. The Bur Clover damages the fleeces of sheep.) 



Perennial; flowers hlue 1. M. saliva. 



Annuals; flowers yellow. 



Pod 1-seeded, reniform, smooth 2. .1/. lupuUna. 



Pod sevoral-seeded, spirally coilea, margined with prickles. 



