Localities.— I n barren pastures, on hedge-banks, and by road-sides, on a 
sandy or marly soil. 
Perennial. — Flowers from June to August. 
Root woody, tough and strong. Stems nearly upright, round, 
woody, branched, reddish, leafy, usually smooth, or covered only 
with a short down, with the exception of a single or double line of, 
somewhat recurved, hairs down the young branches ; these hairs, 
Mr. Bentham observes, are by no means constant, and are never 
so long as in the Ononis arvensis, but much more apparent, on ac- 
count of the extreme shortness or total absence of the general down 
of the plant. Principal, as well as short lateral branches, terminat- 
ing in a straight sharp spine. Leaves alternate, stalked, lower ones 
trifoliate, the rest simple, all elliptical, inclining to wedge-shaped ; 
entire in their lower part ; serrated towards the extremity ; dark 
green, with a few scattered, short, glandular hairs. Stipulas vari- 
able in size, on luxuriant plants rather large, egg-shaped, toothed, 
slightly glandular, often hairy at the base, combined, clasping the 
stem. Flowers axillary, mostly solitary, on short stalks, large and 
handsome, of a bright rose-colour ; sometimes white. Calyx slightly 
hairy, its teeth awl-shaped, unequal, permanent, enlarging as the 
fruit ripens. Standard (see fig. 4.) twice the size of the wings and 
keel. Legume (fig. 10.) obliquely rhomboid, partly hairy, a little 
longer than the lobes of the calyx. Seeds rough, with minute points. 
Many authors have described this as a variety of Ononis arvensis, but Mr. 
Bentham, in some remarks upon these species, in the Supplement to English 
Botany, t. 2659, observes, that “ the erect kind, which is almost constantly spi- 
nous, is certainly the O. antiquorum of Linnaeus, and ought therefore to retain 
that name. Of his spinosa," says Mr. Bentham, “ there is no authentic spe- 
cimen ; but be appears to have first given that name to this plant ( O . arvensis, 
E. B. t. 2659), and to have afterwards (Syst. Nat. ed. 12.) changed it to O. ar- 
vensis ; and it is probably by mistake that Murray, in the 14th edition of the 
Systema Vegetabilium, inserted both O. arvensis and O. spinosa.” ( Engl . 
Hot. Suppl. at t. 2659. 
Dr. Stokes observes, ( With. Bot. Arr. 1st edit. v. ii. p.444.) “Notwith- 
standing Linn/evs makes the thorny Rest-harrow only a variety of the other 
(O. arvensis), and from the observations of Loesel, in the Flora Prussica, 
says it becomes thorny in the Autumn ; yet with us they seem to be different 
species ; they are seldom found together, and the Corn Rest-harrow without 
thorns, hath never been observed to become thorny.” — Mr. Woodward informs 
ns, that in the Autumn of 1779, he examined many hundreds of O. arvensis in 
the cornfields at Berkhamslead, Hertfordshire, without finding a single one with 
thorns, while in the neighbourhood of Bungay, Suffolk, he never found one with- 
out thorns in any season of the year, (With. 2nd ed. v. ii. p. 763.) — The Hon. 
Lady Arden has, for several years, observed that both the O. arvensis, (E. B. 
t. 2659), and O. antiquorum, (E. B. t. 682.), retain their character both in a 
wild and cultivated state, and her Ladyship expresses her opinion, that the plants 
differ too widely to be of the same species ; Loudon’s Mag. Nat. Hist. v. viff. 
p. 636. 
O. antiquorum occasionally occurs with a white flower. I have seen this 
variety on a common near the canal, about half a mile N. from Upper Heyford, 
Oxon ; and also on the road-side between Southam and Dunchurch, Warwick- 
shire ; July 14, 1831. — Mr. John Smith, of Beaumont Buildings, Oxford, ob- 
served it near the Isis, between Sandford and Nuneham. 
The more upright growth ; spiny stems and branches; shorter pubescence ; 
and the legume as long, or rather longer than the calyx, will distinguish this 
species from O. arvensis. 
In the fourth edit, of “ The British Flora,” just published, Sir W. J. Hooker 
has added the Ononis reclinata of Linn«us to the British Flora, on the autho- 
rity of Dr. Graham, who found it, in considerable quantity, on a steep bank, 
close by the sea, 2 miles W. from Tarbert, Galloway, 1836. 
