188 



THE PBAPLOWEE TRIBE. 



times nearly erect, a foot high or more, 

 rarely glabrous, usually thinly clothed 

 with soft spreading hairs, and more or 

 less glutinous ; the hairs either covering 

 the branches all round or entirely in two 

 opposite lines ; in dry situations many of 

 the small branches end in a thorn. Leaf- 

 lets obovate or oblong, the lateral ones 

 smaller or sometimes wanting. Flowers 

 sessile or shortly stalked, solitary, on 

 short branches, or forming short, leafy 

 racemes. Flowers pink, the standard 

 streaked with a deeper shade. Pod 

 shorter or rather longer than the calyx, 

 with 2 or 3 seeds. 



In barren pastures and poor ill- culti- 

 vated fields, throughout Europe and 

 central and Russian Asia, except the ex- 

 treme north. Common in Britain. Fl. 

 summer and autumn. A glabrous, more erect, and thorny variety is 

 often admitted as a species, under the name of O. antiquorum or O. 

 campestris. It is more common in the south of Europe than in Britain. 



Fig. 229. 



2. Small Ononis. Ononis reclinata, Linn. (Fig. 230.) 



(Eng. Bot. Suppl. t. 2838.) 



$y%f\ ^ n erec ^ annual, 3 or 4 inches high, 

 ^0ftfj&& slightly hairy, and often viscid, the 

 lateral branches decumbent at the base. 

 Leaflets small, varying from broadly ob- 

 ovate to very narrow. Flowers small, 

 pale pink, hanging from short erect pe- 

 dicels, forming short, terminal, leafy 

 racemes. Petals scarcely exceeding the 

 calyx, or shorter. Pod rather smaller, 

 containing 10 or 12 seeds. 



On sands and dry banks near the sea, 

 very common round the Mediterranean, 

 and here and there on the shores of the 

 Atlantic, up to the Channel Islands, and 

 again near the Mull of Galloway, on the 

 south-west coast of Scotland. FL early 

 summer. 



Fig. 230. 



