LEGUMINOUS PLANTS. 423 



leaves pinnately 3 foliolate, smooth, prostrate, spreading, very slender. 

 Dry, gravely localities. June — September. 



LESPEDEZA VIOLACEA, Pers— ( Purple Bush Clover). 



Stems upright or spreading, branched ; leaflets varying from oval ob- 

 long to linear, whitish, downy beneath with close-pressed pubescence ; 

 peduncles or clusters few flowered ; pods ovate July — September. 

 Copses. Common, 



LESPEDEZA STTTVEI, NvLtt.~(Dtymy Bush Glover). 



Stems upright, spreading, bushy, downy ; leaflets oval or roundish, 

 longer than the petiole, silky or white wooly beneath, clusters many 

 flowered. With the foregoing. July— August. 



LESPEDEZA HIRTA, ~EM.— {Hairy Bush Clover.) 



Flowers in a cylindrical rather loose spike ; corolla whitish with a 

 purple' spot on the standard ; leaflets roundish or oval, hairy. Plant up- 

 right, wand-like, 2-4 feet high. Dry hills and barrens. July. 



LESPEDEZA CAPITATA, Michx.-(-Boim<i-fteaded Bush Clover). 



Similar to the foregoing, but the leaflets elliptical or oblong, thickish, 

 reticulated and mostly smooth above, silky beneath, spikes or heads 

 dense, nearly globular. With the former, July — August. 



The four last described Lespedeazs are exceedingly valuable pasture 

 plants. Lespedeza striata, the Japan clover, already described, is now 

 quite common in many countries, but the American indigenous species 

 would prove equally as valuable. 



DESMODIUM, D, C.-{Tiek Foil). 



Calyx more or less 2 -lipped. Standard obovate; wings adherent to 

 the straight and usually truncate keel, by means of a little transverse 

 appendage on each side of the latter. Stamens diadelphous 9 and 1, 

 or monadelphous. Pod flat, deeply lobed on the lower margin, sepa- 

 rating into few or many flat reticulated joints, (mostly roughened with 

 minute hooked hairs, by which they adhere to the fleece of animals 

 or to the clothing). Perennial herbs with pinnately 3-foliolate (rarely 

 1-folioate) leaves, stipellate. 



This is a large genus with 23 species in the Atlantic part of the West- 

 em States, and most species are very common and abundant. 



