192 



THE PEAFLOWER TRIBE. 



tion to many parts of the world. In Britain it appears to have esta- 

 blished itself in some of the southern and eastern counties of Eng- 

 land. Fl. spring and summer. A variety with smaller pods, with the 

 prickles exceedingly short and not hooked, has been sometimes con- 

 sidered as a species under the name of M. apiculata. 



5. Spotted Medick. Medicago maculata, Willd. (Fig. 235.) 

 (M. polymorpha, Eng. Bot. t. 1616.) 



An almost glabrous annual, so like the 

 last in foliage, stipules, and flowers, that, 

 without the fruit, it can be scarcely dis- 

 tinguished but by a few spreading hairs 

 on the leaf-stalks, visible when held up 

 against the light. It is often also more 

 luxuriant, the leaflets have usually a 

 dark spot in the centre, and the flowers 

 fewer in the raceme. The pod has 3 or 4 

 spires, much more compact than in the 

 denticulate M., giving the whole pod a 

 more globular form, the surface is less 

 veined, and the edge thicker, more or 

 less furrowed between the prickles, which 

 are finer and more curved. 



In cultivated and waste places, in 

 western and southern Europe to the 

 Caucasus, rarely extending into Ger- 

 many. Not uncommon in central and 

 southern England, also in southern Ireland. Fl. spring and summer. 



6. Bur Medick. Medicago minima, Linn. (Fig. 236.) 



(Eng. Bot. Suppl. t. 2635.) 



An annual, like the last two, but usually smaller and more compact, 

 and clothed with short, soft hairs or down. Stipules entire or very 

 shortly toothed. Flowers few, minute, on short peduncles. Pod 

 smaller than in the last two species, nearly globular, of 2, 3, or 4 com- 

 pact spires edged each with a double row of hooked prickles. 



