N. 0. LEGUMMIN0S.33. 
425 
A diffuse annual herb. Root annual. Stems or rather 
branches, many, diffuse, hairy, from 2-4 ft. long. Leaves 
alternate, pinnate. Leaflets 2 pairs, oval and obovate, slightly 
hairy underneath. Petioles longer than the leaflets, with' the 
base enlarged into a stem-clasping sheath with two ensiform 
processes. Flowers axillary, two or three together blossoming 
in succession. Bracts a common exterior pair to the fascicle 
and small proper ones to the several flowers. All are membranace- 
ous tapering to a fine point and ciliate. Calyx with a very 
long, filiform, slender tube ; mouths two-parted ; the upper lip 
three-cleft, with the middle division emarginate ; the lower lip 
lanceolate, and rather longer. Corolla papilionaceous resupi- 
nate of a bright yellow colour. Vexillum round, emarginate, 
large in propertun to the other petals inserted with the wings 
and carina partly on the base of staminiferous tube and partly 
on the mouth of the tube of the Calyx, wings free obliquely ovate, 
concave, longer than the carina which is at base two-parted ; the 
upper half in curved and subulate ; Filaments ten united into 
one fleshly tube with a groove, but opening on upper side. 
Anthers alternately sagittate and ovate. Germ ‘(ovary) ovate, 
lodged on the base of the sessile tube of the Calyx. Style long 
and slender. Stigma even with the anthers, and bearded on the 
inside. Legume oblong leathery, swelled at each seed, reticu- 
lated with prominent nerves, one-celled not opening spontane- 
ously, nor are the sutures very conspicuous ; length various 
but in general about as thick as the little finger. Seeds from 
one to four, ovate, smooth, of the size of a French bean. The 
manner in which the young minute germ (ovary) of the plant 
acquires pedicels, sufficiently long to allow it to thrust itself 
into the ground to the depth of one, two or even three inches 
where it grows and ripens its seed is truly wonderful. Roxburgh 
further observes : “ to understand the admirable economy it 
must be observed that the flowers are most perfectly sessile, two, 
three or four in the axils of ten leaves, and that the germ is 
lodged in the very base of the tube of the Calyx. Soon after 
the flower decays the germ acquires pedicels, after which it 
lengthens fast, it then enters the earth, and. when the legume is 
perfectly formed, it will generally be found as deep in the earth 
64 
