11 to 15, or even more; while those of either of the others 
are seldom more than 8. There are also other points of 
difference in the calyx and corolla. 
A hardy perennial, flourishing in common earth, and 
flowering from June to September. It is readily increased 
by seeds, which are produced in great abundance. 
Stem erect, about 3 feet high, pilose, round. Leaves 
digitate, placed on a petiole 10 or 12 inches long; /eaflets 
11-15, about 5 inches long, inserted in a double row, lan- 
ceolate, thickish, smooth above, hairy and green below. 
Raceme terminal, erect, sometimes more than 2 feet long, 
with downy rachis and pedicels. vowers whorled, the 
whorls oblique, and often confluent into a spiral line from 
the base to the summit of the racemus. Calya pubescent, 
without bracteole, bilabiate, both lips entire, the upper 
broadly ovate, shorter than the lower, which is acuminate. 
Corolla purple; vewxillum apiculate, revolute, shorter than 
the other parts, and of a deeper colour; the ale very con- 
vex, half-oblong, obtuse, striated at the base ; carina pallid, 
falcate, with a long, acuminate, deep-purple beak, saccate 
on each side above the claw, and quite smooth at. the 
margin. Stamens alternately dwarf, with linear anthers, 
the fertile ones with linear filaments and roundish anthers; 
pollen orange-coloured. Style subulate, very smooth ; stigma 
small, fringed. Pod oblong, hirsute, 5-seeded, with oblong, 
cloudy, brown seeds. 
The inflorescence of this plant occasionally offers a 
beautiful illustration of the theory, that all the organs of a 
plant have really an alternate insertion, in a spiral direction, 
round the stem, or some other common axis, however different 
the apparent insertion may be. In this plant, the usual 
arrangement of the flowers is in the whorls, at short dis- 
tances along the rachis ; but occasionally, in very luxuriant 
specimens, in each whorl the line of insertion round the 
rachis separates at a given point, one end taking a direction 
upwards, the other a direction downwards; the extremities 
of each whorl meet, and the line of insertion thus becomes . 
spiral from the base to the summit. 
Spal bn 
