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25. LEGimrN’osjE. 
pale or -whitish, coarsely rugged or pitted, hard and corky pods 
which are distantly and shortly spined resembling a caltrop or 
the fruit of Trapa natans L., as the specific name well expresses. 
Whole pi. especially the 1. softly downy, and of a slightly greyish - 
gr., otherwise most resembling M. lappacea Desr., though per- 
haps of somewhat smaller less rank or succulent luxuriant habit, 
with more prostrate wiry st., considerably larger fl. and smaller 
heads of fr. St. often purplish, densely hairy or downy. Stip. 
deeply cut and jagged or fimbriate, the teeth shorter less narrow 
numerous and regular than in M. lappacea Desr. Lfts. more 
strongly and regularly toothed, very downy, of a dull dark some- 
what glaucous-gr., immaculate. Ped. shorter than the 1. with 
a long awn, mostly 2- or 4-fl., rarely 1- or 3-fl., never more than 
4-fl. Fl. large in comparison with those of M. lappacea or M. 
minima , bright golden-y., keel a little longer than the wings, 
shorter than the standard which is nearly as broad as long. 
Pods from the first almost or quite veinless, but often a little 
hairy, as large perhaps individually as in M. lappacea a; but 
since 2 only are usually produced, they do not form the large 
bur-like heads of fr. characteristic of that pi., and the spines, 
though longer in the unripe than ripe pod, instead of being 
slender long and crowded, are comparatively stout short conic 
thick or even bulbous at the base and remote, with their points 
indistinctly if at all hooked, and the edge raised or thickened 
like a cord or belt. When ripe they are excessively hard rude 
and corky in appearance, with the surface coarsely pitted or un- 
even, and instead of turning brown or black, like all the pre- 
ceding sp., they are always pale or whitish, becoming as they 
ripen frequently quite smooth. The spines vary considerably 
both in length and direction ; either standing out all round in 
various directions like those of a hedgehog, or, especially when 
more short and bulbous-conical, reflexed and bent up and down 
vertically or parallel to the axis of the pod, locking its turns to- 
gether and constituting the var. /3, which however blends into 
a. by imperceptible gradations. An extreme form or state of this, 
with also smaller longer more cylindric truncate and distinctly 
hairy pods, which are more rarely or remotely and very shortly 
bulbously-spinous, occurs above the “Crater” at the E. end of 
the Praia Formosa, constituting var. /3, no. 2. 
1 3 . Fr. large (diam. 3-4, ax. 3-5 lines) cylindric often distinctly 
hairy, spines very short thick and bulbous strongly reflexed up 
and down and interlocking. — M. tritmloidcs a. genuina Koch l. c. 
About the crater at the E. end of the Praia Formosa to the W. 
of Funchal. — Two forms may be distinguished : l,fr. larger, diam. 
31,-4, ax. 3.J -5; and 2, fr. smaller, diam. 2 .1—3, ax. 3-4* lines. — 
A mere state of a, with longer more cylindric subpubescent fr., 
and shorter bulbous interlocking spines ; volutions 5 or 0 rarely 7. 
