218 



THE PEAFLOWER TRIBE. 



Fig. 270. 



Pods slightly downy, about 6 lines long, 

 ending in a curved beak ; the articles 

 short and oval. 



In dry pastures, in central and south- 

 ern Europe, scarcely extending to its 

 eastern limits, and northward only into 

 southern Sweden. Abundant in many 

 parts of England and Ireland, less so in 

 Scotland. Fl. spring and summer. 



XV. HIPPOCREPIS. HIPPOCREPIS. 



Herbs or low shrubs, usually glabrous, with pinnate leaves and axil- 

 lary peduncles, bearing an umbel of yellow flowers, without any leaf. 

 Stamens diadelphous, the upper one quite free. Pod much flattened, of 

 numerous articles, each of them curved like a horseshoe, so that the 

 pod has as many deep notches on one side. 



A genus of but few species, chiefly natives of south-western Europe. 

 In flower they cannot well be distinguished from Coronilla, but the 

 pod is very different. 



1. Common Hippocrepis. Hippocrepis comosa, Linn. 

 (Fig. 271.) 



(Eng. Bot. t. 31.) 



Stock perennial, with numerous stems branching at the base, and 

 either short and tufted, or spreading along the ground to the length of 

 6 inches to a foot. Leaflets 9 to 15, small, obovate, oblong, or linear, 

 and glabrous, the lowest pair at a distance from the stem. Flowers 5 

 to 8 in the umbel, resembling those of the common Lotus, and with 

 nearly the same pointed keel, but rather smaller and paler. Pod about 



