ASTRAGALUS ALOPECUROIDES. 
FOX-TAIL-LIKE MILK VETCH. 
Class. Order. 
D1ADELPHIA. DECANDRIA. 
Natural Order. 
LEGUMINOSiE 
Native of 
Height. 
Flowers in 
Duration. 
Introduced 
Spain. 
2 feet. 
June, July. 
Perennial. 
in 1737. 
No. 265. 
It is now difficult to determine why the Greek 
word astragalos, which has several interpreta- 
tions, was used as the name of a plant. It signifies 
a die, also a bone of the foot, and sometimes the 
vertebrae; and a resemblance has been supposed to 
exist between some of these and the fruit of the ve- 
getable. Alopecuroides, from the Greek alopex, 
a fox; our A, a tail ; eidos, a likeness. This com- 
pound term alludes to its tuft of woolly calyces. 
The flower of this plant, though the nursling of a 
downy bed, is not very attractive ; but it amply re- 
quites us by the elegance of its foliage. Composed 
of from twenty to thirty pairs of leaflets, gradually 
diminishing towards their apex, and gracefully dis- 
played from the flowering stem, its leaves yield in 
beauty to none that we know. Studded, as the 
brilliant dew-drops of the morning often leaves them, 
they assume the aspect of a regal plumage, gemmed 
to brightness by glittering diamonds. 
This Astragalus is readily raised from seed ; which 
should be sown in March. In the following Sep- 
tember the young plants should be carefully remo- 
ved to their final situation. 
Ilort. Kew. 2, v. 4, 359. 
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