Ornithopus.] leguminos«. 135 



W, Med. — In Mrs. Goodwin's grounds at W. Cowes. 

 ;8. A specimen found in Boidwood copse, April, 1843. 



Root consisting of one or more irregular knots or fleshy tubers, of a blackish 

 brown externally, from the size of a pea to that of a hazel-nut or larger, emitting 

 long creeping fibres that bear at intervals other smaller tubers. Stems several, 

 their lowermost part creeping imder ground or rhizomatous, white, round and 

 fleshy ; that above ground rising from about 6 to 12 or 15 inches high, weak, 

 inclining or suberect, simple or slightly branched, acutely quadrangular, 2 of the 

 angles sharply winged and twisted or oblique, glabrous or slightly pubescent, pale 

 green with a glaucous bloom. Leaves mostly about 3 or 4 on the superior half of 

 the stem, alternate, with 2, 3, or 4 pairs of mucronate sessile leaflets that stand 

 more or less erect and often folded, quite glabrous, of a dull grayish green above, 

 whitish or glaucous beneath, with 3—5 slender parallel libs, about 1 or 2 inches 

 in length, very variable in breadth, mostly lanceolate and acute, sometimes ellip- 

 tical and obtuse, occasionally very narrow and even linear, their common petiole 

 broad, concave above, and terminating in a weak straight and flat awn-like pro- 

 cess, not i an inch in length, instead of a tendril. Stipules large, semisagittate, 

 acute, usually more or less toothed or crenate about the middle and base, varying 

 in breadth, with the leaflets from ovate-lanceolate to linear-lanceolate. Peduncles 

 axillary and terminal, longer than the leaves, winged and angled like the stem, 

 erect, from 3- or 4- to 6- or 7-flowered. Flowers on lax pedicels, which are 

 shorter than the calyx, about J an inch long, of a pretty uniform rose-red on first 

 expanding, but subsequently assuming variously intermixed shades and pencilling 

 of purple, bright pink, blue and green, fading at length into a dingy white or 

 brown colour. Calyx short, very obtuse or truncate behind, a little flattened 

 above, nearly cylindrical, deep purple ; the 3 lower segments much the longest, 

 broad and pointed, often slightly ciliated, the 2 upper extremely short and broad, 

 with converging points, and a deep semicircular sinus between them. Standard 

 roundish heart-shaped, erect and somewhat reflexed, pencilled, with a very broad 

 vaulted claw ; wings ascending, converging over and concealing the keel, to which 

 they firmly adhere by a hollow gibbosity just above each of their long narrow 

 claws ; keel a little inflated, pale greenish or yellowish. Style ascending, com- 

 pressed, quite flat and erect in its upper half, bearing on its inner side the bearded 

 decumbent stigma, the apex slightly thickened and bent backwards, truncate. 

 Stamens united for f of their length into a continuous tube to the base, the tenth 

 filament free, with a dilated border the length of the tube ; anthers oblong-ellip- 

 tical, flatfish, pale yellow. Legume from about 1^ to 2 inches long, brownish 

 black, glabrous, subcylindrical, straight and acuminate, with a recurved point. 

 Seeds greenish or yellowish, mostly mottled with purplish brown, globose, quite 

 smooth and glabrous ; hilum linear-oblong, about ^ the circumference of the seed. 



In Aberdeenshire, as I learn from Mr. Lawrence, the tubers of the root are well 

 known as Gnapparts. In Sweden, O. niger is called Wipp-arter or Vipp-arter, 

 the root having a similar sweet taste. 



For a detailed account of the uses of this plant see Curt. Fl. Lond. i. t. 53. 



Tribe III. Hedysareje. 



Stamens diadelphous. Legume lomentaceous, of one or more 

 single-seeded indehiscent joints or cells separating transversely. 



* Loment many-celled, rounded or compressed. 

 XV. Oenithopus, Linn. Bird's-foot. 



" Calyx elongated tubular. Keel very small, obtuse. Legume 

 compressed, curved, of many close single-seeded joints, whose 



