By Thomas Bruges Flower, Esq. 115 



Locality. Sandy and gravelly soil. A. Fl. June, August 

 General in all the Districts, especially on the downs. Yery near 

 the last species but more slender and procumbent, the flowers 

 smaller in a head and of a paler colour, the standard not so broad, 

 more folded, and only faintly striated. 



9. T. filiforme (Linn.) Slender Trefoil, so called from the thread 

 like flower stalks, filum signifying a thread, and forma form. Engl. 

 Bot. t. 1257. T. micranthum (Koch.) 



Locality. Dry pastures, roadsides, common on the downs. A. 

 Fl. June, July. Area, 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. In all the Districts. 



Doubts have been entertained by many botanists whether this 

 and the preceding species are essentially distinct. I would here 

 however quote the valuable remarks of my friend Mr. William 

 Wilson of Warrington, who has narrowly watched both plants for 

 several years past. '■' T. filiforme " he says, " may easily be recog- 

 nized by its more truly procumbent or prostrate habit, its deep 

 yellow almost fulvous flowers, and its dark green foliage. The 

 common stalk of the leaves is always very short, about half as 

 long as the stipules. The corolla does not ' become tawny as the 

 seed ripens ' but turns very pale, and owing to the narrowness of 

 the petals and especially of the standard (which is deeply emar- 

 ginate) the legume or fruit as it ripens becomes quite conspicuous ; 

 whereas in T. minus it is entirely covered and concealed by the 

 faded, deflexed, and scariose standard twice as broad as in T. fili- 

 forme and furrowed. The diligent observer will find other points 

 of difference which I forbear to enumerate. I have sought in 

 vain for intermediate states, and fully believe that the two species 

 may be identified, if only a single flower of each be produced for 

 that purpose." 



Lotus, (Linn.) Birds-foot Trefoil. 

 Linn. CI. xvii. Ord. iii. 

 Name. From Lotos (Grr.) of Theophrastus and Dioscorides, but 

 the true Lotus is Zizyphus Lotus. The name perhaps is of 

 Egyptian origin. 



