864 
DIADELPHIA. DECANDRIA. Lotus. 
(Several varieties of one or other of the above species have been recorded, 
as more or less attenuated, smooth, hairy, or hoary. It. Syn. 334. Hall. 
385. E.) 
(L. decum'bens. Heads of few flowers: stems recumbent, nearly 
solid: legumes somewhat spreading, cylindrical, two-edged: 
calyx hairy, its teeth shorter than the tube. 
Stems widely spreading, partly quite prostrate, a foot or more in length, 
filled with light pith, angular, leafy, smooth, somewhat glaucous. \Leaves 
glaucous, smooth above; occasionally clothed beneath with short, close, 
bristly hairs. Leaflets and stipules similar, lanceolate, pointed, oblique, 
except the terminal one, which is obovate-lanceolate. Common foot-stalk 
but half the length of the leaflets, channelled, slightly bordered. Flower- 
stalks axillary, four or five times the length of the leaves, smooth, stout 
and firm, obscurely angular, each bearing an umbel of from three to six 
bright yellow flowers , accompanied by a terminate leaf without stipulas. 
In starved plants the flowers are solitary. Partial stalks and calyx all 
over silky, with more or less abundant, short, close hairs; the calyx-teeth 
lanceolate, tapering, spreading, shorter than the tube, somewhat hairy, 
with wide rounded interstices. Separate portion of each filament of con¬ 
siderable length, the longest dilated upwards. Legumes nearly erect, or 
but slightly spreading, smooth, dotted, cylindrical, without any depres¬ 
sion or channel, both sutures rather prominent, forming a ridge along 
each margin. 
Hitherto confounded with L. corniculatus , or the following. 
Spreading Bird’s-foot Trefoil. L . decumhens. Forst. At Hastings, 
near Bulverhithe; also in meadows near Tunbridge. Forster. In fields 
near Forfar, North Britain. Mr. G. Hon. P. July. Sm. Eng. FI. E.) 
(L. angustis'simus. Peduncle one or two-flowered: stem much 
branched, prostrate, tubular: legumes two-edged, very slender, 
somewhat compressed : calyx loosely hairy: teeth fringed, twice 
the length of the tube. 
E. Bot. 925.— J. B. ii. 356— H. Ox. ii. 18. 1. 
Pubescence consisting of fine, long, loose and spreading hairs, like those of 
L. major , but far more constant and abundant. Root beset with small 
tubercles, certainly annual. Stems partly ascending, densely leafy, very 
hairy, six to ten inches long, with a small internal cavity destitute of 
pith. Leafits and stipules ovate, pointed, rather glaucous, hairy on both 
sides. Flower-stalks spreading, weak and slender, once or twice as long 
as the leaves, hairy, each bearing for the most part two, rather small, 
bright yellow flowers, sometimes but one, very rarely three, with a ter- 
nate leaf at the base of their partial stalks. Cal. widely funnel-shaped ; 
specific distinction of most importance to the farmer, is the difference which exists between 
them in an agricultural point of view. The weight of green food, or hay, produced by 
L. major is triple that of L. corniculatus , and its nutritive powers are little inferior, but it 
is extremely bitter. It does not appear to be eaten by any cattle when in a green state; but 
when made into hay with common grasses, sheep, oxen, and deer eat it without reluct¬ 
ance. In moist clayey soils it would doubtless be a most profitable substitute for red 
clover, but the excess of bitter extractive and saline matters if contains seems to forbid its 
adoption without a considerable admixture of other plants,” Hort. Gram. E.) 
