8* 
LESSERTIA annua. 
Annual Lessertia. 
DIADELPHIA DECANDRIA— Nat. Ord. LEGUMINOSJE. 
Gen. Char. — Calyx semiquinquefidus. Vexillum explanatum. Carina ob- 
tusa. Stigma capitatum. Stylus antice barba transversa apicis ; postice 
iraberbis. Legumen scariosum, evalve (compressum vel inflatum).— Br. 
in Hort. Ken. 
Lessertia annua ; calycibus bibracteatis nigro-pilosis, foliolis linearibus 
supra glabris. — Br. 
L. annua, De Cand. Astrag. p. S8. — Br. in Hort. Kerv. ed. 2. v. iv. p. 328. 
Colutea herbacea, Willd. Sp. PL v. iii. p. 1141. 
Stems about one foot high, suberect, slender, weak, striated, subpubescent, 
branched, annual, (Brown), with us apparently perennial or biennial. 
Leaves few in number. Petioles from two to four inches long, slender, fur-, 
rowed on the upper side, and furnished with from four to nine distantly 
placed, linear obtuse leaflets, of about three quarters of an inch in length, 
sessile, glabrous above, of a pleasant rather deep green, beneath under 
the microscope slightly pubescent. Stipules two, very small, patent, su- 
bulate. 
Peduncle five or six inches in length, slender, filiform, pubescent, with about 
five or six small, elegant, distant, pedicellated flowers. Calyx of one 
piece, obtuse at the base, and there furnished with two opposite, very 
minute bracteas, and covered with short, dark colored, almost black pu- 
bescence ; cut into five nearly equal teeth, about one- third as long as the 
calyx. Vexillum rotundato-obcordate, with a short claw, recurved, deeper 
rose-colored, with darker oblique lines meeting in the centre. Alee and 
carina deep purple, nearly equal in length, the former oblong, curved, 
and slightly twisted towards the extremity, appressed to the carina, 
which is compressed, boat-shaped, obtuse ; both are shortly unguiculate. 
Stamens concealed within the carina, one free, nine united. Anther yellow. 
Pistil: Germen linear-lanceolate, compressed, horizontal. Style erect, 
glabrous, filiform, terminated just below the small capitate stigma, with 
a circular thick ray of delicate white hairs, which are longest on the in- 
ferior side. Legumes thin, membranaceous, faintly reticulated, towards 
the margins flattened, the centre slightly inflated, valveless (Br.), with 
VOL. II. 
