cytisus. LEGUMINOS.E. 131 



MEUICAGO. 



On sandy plains about the mouth of the Columbia river. Introduced 

 from Europe. 



4 CYTISUS L. Gen. n. 877. 



Shrubs with green, more or less leafy angular brandies, palm- 

 ately or pinnately trifoliolate leaves, minute or inconspicuous 

 stipules and solitary or racemous, yellow or white flowers. Calyx 

 with campanulate tube and bilabiate limb. Petals broad, ungui- 

 culate, free, the keel obtuse. Stamens 10, monadelphous ; anth- 

 ers in two sets, the outer ones short and versatile, the alternate 

 ones long and basifixed. Ovary mostly sessile, many-ovuled ; 

 style glabrous, incurved; stigma terminal, capitate or oblique. 

 Pod compressed, several-seeded. 



C. scoparius Link. Enum. ii, 241. (Scotch Broom). A much branched 

 shrub 3-8 feet high with prominently angular green branches; sparingly 

 leafy, leaflets glabrous, often 1 only: flowers large, bright yellow, solitary 

 or in pairs along the branchlets, in the leaf-axils and apparently racemose : 

 pods pilose along the margins. Becoming common in many places. In- 

 troduced from Europe. 



Tribe 3. Trifoliese Broun. DC. Prodr. ii, 17 1. Erect or pro- 

 cumbent, mostly low herb*, rarely a little shrubby, with palmately 

 or pinnately trifoliolate, rarely S-7-foliolate leave*, the leaflets often 

 toothed or serrulate, and axillary or terminal, racemose, spicate, 

 capitate or umbellate inflorescence. Corolla papilionaceous. Sta- 

 mens diadelphous. Pod continuous, 1-celled. several-seeded and de- 

 hiscent, or one to few-seeded and nearly indehiscent. Radicle in- 

 flexed. 



5 MEDICAGO Tourn. L. (Jen. n. S99. 



Herbaceous, or rarely shrubby, plants with palmately trifolio- 

 late leave 52 , often incised stipules, and axillary, 1-2- or many- 

 flowered peduncles. Calyx somewhat cylindrical, 5-cleft. Keel 

 of the corolla remote from the upper petal. Pod usually many- 

 seeded, of various forms, falcate or spirally coiled. 



M. sativa Moris. Hist, ii, 150. (Alfalfa). Perennial; glabrous: stems 

 erect, 2-4 feet high : leaflets cuneate-oblong or oblanceolate, toothed above, 

 mucronate; stipules lanceolate, somewhat toothed: flowers numerous, 

 racemose, violet: pods spirally coiled, unarmed. Fields and roadsides, 

 sparingly introduced. 



M. lupulina L. Sp. 779. Annual, slender, procumbent, 1-2 feet long, 



soft-hairy : leaflets obovate, small : flowers minute, in small, oblong heads ; 

 yellow : pod small, reniform or curved almost into a ring, black when ripe, 

 l-seeded. Klickitat Co., Washington. Introduced from Asia. 



M. dexticulata Willd. Sp. iii, 1414. (Bur-Clover). Annual, much 

 branched, decumbent, glabrous : leaflets obovate or obcordate, denticulate : 

 flowers 2-8, yellow : pods coiled into 2 circles, their margins armed with 

 hooked prickles. Introduced from Asia. 



6 MELILOTUS Tourn. Inst. t. 22t> L. Gen. n. 899 (vSweet Clover). 

 Erect herb? with pinnately trifoliolate leaves and small lYa- 



