Trifoliitm.] leguminos^. 121 



leafy veiny at length reflexed, leaflets obcordate toothed, stipules 

 ovate much acuminated, stems procumbent. Br. Fl. p. 102. E. 

 B. t. 1063. 



In dry, short, gravelly, sandy or heathy pastures, and on waste sandy ground 

 by the sea; rare. M. May, June. 0. 



E. Med. — On the Dover, Ryde, sparingly. On an earthen bank in Sandown 

 bay, near the turning off to Brading and Ryde, 1848. A few small but perfect 

 specimens on a bank by the sea, between Sandown and the fort, Sandown bay. 

 Dr. Martin !.'.' [On St. Helen's spit abundantly. Dr. Bell-Salter, Edrs.] 



W. Med. — At Freshwater Gate. 



Root annual, whitish, tapering and fibrous. Stems several, quite prostrate, irre- 

 gularly though not much branched, round, solid, smooth, whitish or purplish, usu- 

 ally spreading in a circular form, from 3 or 4 to 6 or 8 inches in length. Leaves 

 bright green with a pale spot In the centre of each leaflet, quite glabrous like the 

 whole plant ; leaflets small, very shortly stalked, with numerous straight parallel 

 veins, roundly obovate, edged with purple, minutely sharply and unequally denti- 

 culato-serrulate, lowermost serralures larger and more distant, the base of the leaf- 

 lets entire. Petioles of variable length, semiterete, canaliculate above. Stipules 

 sheathing, coloured, ribbed, roundish or oblong, with suliulate sometimes reflexed 

 points. Flowers minute, light pink or purplish, in small, dense, axillary and ter- 

 minal sessile heads or clusters, of a globular form and about the size of peas. 

 Bracts solitary under each flower, small, white, scariose and pointed. Calyx ses- 

 sile, campanulate, with 10 purplish prominent ribs, and 5 green, short, ovato-tri- 

 angular teeth, which are 3-nerved, very acutely pointed and spreading, though 

 finally reflexed and rigid. Corolla longer than the calyx, the standard very flatly 

 conduplicate, curved upwards and acute, without claws, not striated except when 

 beginning to wither, when it becomes very evidently streaked, nearly or quite con- 

 cealing the very minute whitish heel and wings. Legume about as long as the 

 tube of the calyx, roundish, compressed, very thin and membranous, tipped with 

 the long persistent style, bursting along its upper suture and rupturing irregularly 

 besides. See'ds 2, very often but 1 by abortion, very globular, pale yellow, often 

 greenish. 



The perfect smoothness of the whole plant, with the smaller much rounder 

 heads of flowers, areall sufiicient distinctions between this species and T. striatum. 



8. T. suffocatum, L. Suffocated Trefoil. " Heads sessile 

 roundish, petals shorter than the membranaceous faintly striated 

 calyx whose teeth are broadly subulate falcate recurved." — Br. 

 Fl. p. 108. E. B. t. 1049. 



In loose sandy waste or pasture-ground along the sea-shore, but rarely. Fl. 

 May — July. . 



E. Med.~Oa the Dover, Ryde, Rev. G. E. Smith .'!.' and where I have since 

 picked it myself. Red ells', just the spot on which the new lighthouse (St. 

 Catherine's) is erected, George Kirkpatriek, Esq. [In great abundance on St.. 

 Helen's spit, especially in the less worn parts of the road, A. G. More, Esq., Edrs.] 



Root whitish, tapering, branched and fibrous, sometimes with a few granula- 

 tions. Stems numerous, prostrate, simple or slightly branched at the base, mostly 

 spreading in a circular form, and half buried in the sand, from about 1 to 3 or 4 

 inches in length, round, smooth, solid, leafy and glabrous, as is the whole plant. 

 Leaves bright green, alternate, on very long, slender, semiterete petioles that are 

 flattened or very slightly grooved above, sometimes nearly 3 inche.s in length ; 

 leaflets very shortly stalked (the 2 lateral almost sessile), obcordate or oliovale, dis- 

 tantly and .sharply denticulato-serrate in their upper half, the serratuies spinulose, 

 wedge-shaped and quite entire in their lower half, somewhat shining beneath, with 

 few, distant, filiform, not at all prominent ribs running direct to the marginal 

 points. Stipules broad, scariose, not coloured, with long, subulate, green points, 

 ribless except 3 strong green nerves beneath (the centre one continued into the 



E 



