90 legcjminosjE. 



lanceolate, acuminate, 2 or 3 in. long; stipules subulate-setaceous, decid- 

 uous: racemes longer than the leaves, the bluish flowers more or less 

 verticillate.— Native of Chile; frequent in cultivation, occasionally wild. 



6. P. Californica, Wats. Low, tufted; pubescence short, silky, ap- 

 pressed: leaves palmately 5-foliolate;' stipules scarious, lanceolate, decid- 

 uous; leaflets broadly oblanceolate, acutish, % — 1^ in. long: racemes 

 shorter than the leaves, short-peduncled, rather loose; pedicels slender: 

 calyx silky-villous, ~% in. long, the linear acuminate lobes a little 

 exceeding the petals: pod thin, villous, oblong with a lanceolate beak: 

 seed compressed, 2 lines long or more. — Summit of Mt. Diablo. 



9. LOTUS, Tourn. (Lotus. Hosackia). Herbaceous or suffrutescent, 

 with pinnately 3 — oo-foliolate (in the first species often 1-foliolate) 

 leaves; leaflets sometimes of even number but unequally distributed on 

 the two sides of the rachis; stipules foliaceous, scarious, or more com- 

 monly reduced to dark glands. Flowers solitary, or in umbels or heads 

 which are naked or subtended by a 1 — 5-foliolate bract. Calyx 5-toothed 

 or -cleft. Corolla whitish, yellowish or purplish, changing to orange or 

 red; petals free from the stamens; banner ovate or rounded: wings 

 commonly meeting imperfectly and (by a twist in the claw) obliquely in 

 front of the obtuse or acute, sometimes rostrate keel. Stamens diadel- 

 phous; the alternate filaments dilated or thickened under the anthers. 

 Pod linear, compressed or terete, straight or arcuate, promptly or tardily 

 dehiscent, or indehiscent, 1 — oo- seeded. Seeds variously rounded or 

 elongated, sometimes quadrate, smooth, tuberculate or rugose. 



* Annuals with gland-like traces of stipules; leaflets 1 — 4, on a linear 



rachis; pods straight, readily dehiscent. 



1. L. Americanus (Nutt.), Bisch. Erect or decumbent, 1 — 2 ft. high, 

 more or less villous: leaflets (rarely 5) ovate or oblong, acutish, % in. 

 long: peduncles slender, exceeding the leaves, the solitary salmon- 

 colored or whitish flower subtended by a bract 3 — 6 lines long: calyx-tube 

 very short, the linear teeth equalling the corolla: pod 1 — V/% in. long: 

 seeds oblong, smooth, dark-colored. — On sunny banks, or in the dry 

 gravelly beds of streams, or even in moist meadow lands. May — Dec. 



* * Stipules gland-like; leaflets A— 10, unequally distributed on opposite 



margins of a dilated rachis; pods readily dehiscent. 



t- Annuals; flowers solitary, short-pedicelled, not bracled; claws of petals 

 approximate; keel pointed. 



2. L. Wrangelianns, Fisch. & Mey. Less than 1 ft. high, ascending, 

 much branched, densely leafy, sparsely or canescently villous: leaflets 

 about 4, cuneate-obovate to oval or oblong, 3—6 lines long; calyx-teeth 

 broadly subulate, equalling the tube: corolla 3 lines long, bright yellow, 



