312 



LEGUMINOSiE. 



laciniately toothed or pinnatifid; involucre obsolete; flowers 3 to 5. — 

 Alkaline plains: Byron and Bethany in the Lower San Joaquin; 

 Colusa Junction in the Sacramento Valley, Brandegee (the foliage 

 curiously diverse, the leaves linear and entire or extravagantly 

 toothed or laciniate). 



12. M ELI LOTUS Juss. Sweet Clover. 

 Annual or biennial herbs with pinnately 3-foliolate leaves and 

 toothed leaflets. Flowers small, yellow or white, in spike-like 

 racemes on axillary peduncles, in bud erect, soon deflexed and not 

 again becoming erect. Calyx 5-toothed, the teeth subulate. Petals 

 falling after flowering, free from the stamen tube. Stamens dia- 

 delphous, the upper one entirely free. Pod ovoid, coriaceous, 

 straight, in ours wrinkled, scarcely dehiscent, 1 to 2-seeded. (Greek 

 meli, honey, and lotos, the ancient name of some plant belonging to 

 this family.) 



Flowers white; plants 3 to 6 ft. high 1. M. alba. 



Flowers yellow; plants 1% to 3 ft. high 2. M. Indica. 



1. M. alba Lam. White Melilot. Erect, simple below, 

 branching above, 3 to ft. high; leaflets broadty or narrowly 

 oblong, tapering to both ends, or widest above the middle, serrate 

 except at the very base, over J to 1^ in. long; flowers white, 2 lines 

 long, in racemes 1 to 2 in, long; standard slightty longer than the 

 wings. 



Pare in the Bay Kegion, occurring only in river beds: San Leandro 

 Creek, Davy; Napa Piver, near St. Helena; common in moist valleys 

 northward. Naturalized from the Old World as also the next. 



2. M. Indica All. Yellow Melilot. Main stem erect, \\ to 

 3 ft. high, with many rather spreading branches from above the base; 

 leaflets broadly or narrowly euneate-obovate, or dentate or serrate but 

 entire below the middle, refuse at apex, 1 in. long or more, those of 

 the lateral branchlets or at the summit smaller; racemes \\ to 2 in. 

 long, longer than the peduncles; flowers yellow, \\ lines long; wing 

 and keel petals oblong, the latter slightly broader. 



Very common. Apr.-May. 



13. MEDICAGO L. Medick. 

 Herbs with pinnatety 3-foliolate leaves and usually toothed leaflets. 

 Flowers small, in short spikes or loose heads on axillary peduncles. 

 Corolla falling after flowering. Calyx 5-toothed. Keel obtuse. 

 Stamens diadelphous, the upper one entirely free. Pod small, 1 to 

 several-seeded, incurved or coiled or spirally twisted, and indehiscent. 

 (From the Greek Medike, name given by JDiocorides to a plant from 

 Media, perhaps Lucern. All the species have been naturalized from 

 Europe. The Bur Clover damages the fleeces of sheep.) 



Perennial; flowers blue 1. 3/. sativa. 



Annuals; flowers yellow. 



Pod 1-seeded, reniform, smooth 2. M. lupulina. 



Pod several-seeded, spirally coiled, margined with prickles. 



