230 Dr. Plukenett^ Obfervattons, 



Flowers are long, {lender, and pipM 9 they are of 3 

 moft immaculate white, (tho' yourDefcription fecms 

 to put them to the Blufh) and often with three on a 

 Stalk 9 which Number of fliort and curv'd Pods fuc- 

 ceeding, does make out a pretty Refemblance of a 

 Bird's Claw, and I am fully perfuaded the Tr i folium par ^ 

 vum album Monfpeliac. cuni panels fioribus^J. B. is no o- 

 ther than this Birds-Foot Trefoil^ which in niy Cata- 

 logue I have made a Synonyme for it. As for the 

 Trif. fubterr. tricocc. whereunto you incline to apply 

 the Phytologifts Title, 'tis true it has indeed the 

 fame Sort of white fiftulous Flowers 5 but withal, it 

 has fuch a Singularity in the Mode of growing, as 

 thrufting the Stalks of its Flowers, even while it is 

 ill Flower, into the Bofom of the Earth, that l ean- 

 not but think this very Peculiarity could not poffibly 

 have efcaped the Observation of its firft Explorers, 

 who could not be fo deficient in their way of impo- 

 fing Names, as to negleft fuch a remarkable Note, fo 

 fignal a Chara6ireriftick in the Compolition of its Ti- 

 tle, as alone might ferve to diftinguifh it from all the 

 iferr<e filii and trefoils in the World. After this Man- 

 ner it was that the famous Dr. Magnol accommodated 

 his Name for it * fo did Dr. Morifon his, who indeed 

 pretended to be the firft Difcoverer of it, or at leaft 

 affign'd it to his Princely Patron, whofe Bad^e (Ga- 

 fibnium) was ahnex'd unto its other Titles in Memory 

 of its firft Invention, tho' I find it (yet ftill by 

 Names expreffive of this Peculiar) in Authors before 

 himy as in Fallot y Joncquet^ and other Catalogue 

 Writers, before that of the Garden of Blots by Mo- 

 riJm YuA any Being in the World : So that 1 only 

 hence infer, that had the Authors of the Phyt. Brit. 

 or the moft learned J. Bauhine (but he faw not the 

 growing Plant) in their Denominations intended the 

 Subterranean Trefoil, they would not have contented 

 themfelves with lodging their difcriminating Chara- 

 cter upon the Flowers alone, (that are inter-common 



with 



