N. 0. LEGUMMINOS^. 



425 



A diffuse annual herb. Root annual. Steins or rather 

 branches, many, diffuse, hairy, from 2-4 ft. long. Leaves 

 alternate, pinnate. Leaflets 2 pairs, oval and obovate, slightly 

 hairy underneath. Petioles longer than the leaflets, with the 

 base enlarged into a stem-clasping sheath with two ensiform 

 processes. Flowers axillary, two or three together blossoming 

 in succession, Bracts a common exterior pair to the fascicle 

 and small proper ones to the several flowers. All are membranace- 

 ous tapering to a fine point and ciliate. Calyx with a very 

 long, filiform, slender tube ; mouths two-parted ; the upper lip 

 three-cleft, with the middle division emarginate ; the lower lip 

 lanceolate, and rather longer. Corolla papilionaceous resupi- 

 nate of a bright yellow colour. Vexillum round, emarginate, 

 large in proper tun to the other petals inserted with the wings 

 and carina partly on the base of staminiferous tube and partly 

 on the mouth of the tube of the Calyx, wings free obliquely ovate, 

 concave, longer than the carina which is at base two-parted ; the 

 upper half in curved and subulate ; Filaments ten united into 

 one fleshly tube with a groove, but opening on upper side. 

 Anthers alternately sagittate and ovate. Germ "(ovary) ovate, 

 lodged on the base of the sessile tube of the Calyx. Style long 

 and slender. Stigma even with the anthers, and bearded on the 

 inside. Legume oblong leathery, swelled at each seed, reticu- 

 lated with prominent nerves, one-celled not opening spontane- 

 ously, nor are the sutures very conspicuous ; length various 

 but in general about as thick as the little finger. Seeds from 

 one to four, ovate, smooth, of the size of a French bean. The 

 manner in which the young minute germ (ovary) of the plant 

 acquires pedicels, sufficiently long to allow it to thrust itself 

 into the ground to the depth of one, two or even three inches 

 where it grows and ripens its seed is truly wonderful. Roxburgh 

 further observes : " to understand the admirable economy it 

 must be observed that the flowers are most perfectly sessile, two, 

 three or four in the axils of ten leaves, and that the germ is 

 lodged in the very base of the tube of the Calyx. Soon after 

 the flower decays the germ acquires pedicels, after which it 

 lengthens fast, it then enters the earth, and when the legume is 



perfectly formed, it will generally be found as deep in the earth 

 54 



