BOSSIÆA cordifolia.
Heart-leaved Bossioea.
Limiean Class and Order. DIADELPHIA DECANDRIA.
Natural Order. LEGUMINOSÆ. DC. prodr.2. p.93.
Subordo I. PAPILIONACEÆ.—Tribus II. L o teæ . Supra fol. 2.
Subtribus J. G e n ist eæ . Legnmen uniloculare. Stamina sæpissimè monadelpha.
Folia simplicia aut palmatim trifoliata rariùs pinnata. Caules sæpissimè fruticosi.
BOSSIÆA. Supra fol. 9.
B. cordifolia, ramis teretibus conferte foliosis lanato-villosis, caule erecto ramoso, fo-
liis subsessilibus cordatis acutis spinoso-mucronatis supra scabris subtùs nervis
pilosis ; marginibus recurvis, pedunculis bibracteatis foliis subæqualibus.
A dwarf erect bushy evergreen Shrub, more or less branched
: branches round, densely clothed with woolly hairs, and
crowded with leaves. Leaves rigid, sessile or nearly so, heart-
shaped, acute, and terminated with a sharp rigid spine, rough on
the upper side and of a darkish green; underneath glaucous, and
clothed with procumbent hairs, particularly on the nerves : margins
rough and revolute; those on the main stems opposite, or
in threes, whorled; on the smaller branches alternate, but very
much crowded, generally bent downwards : lower ones about as
broad as long, upper ones narrower. Stipules subulate, brown,
fringed. Flowers axillary, solitary, yellow, with a purple circle
at the base, and a dark purple keel, fragrant, the scent resembling
Furze, or JJlex europceus. Peduncles about the length of the
leaves. Bractes 2 , very small, at the base of the calyx. Calyx
turbinately campanulate, keeled on the upper side, 2 -lipped,
with woolly fringed margins : upper lip much the largest, trun-
cately rounded, notched in the middle; lower lip 3-parted, the
segments small, ovately lanceolate, acute, recurved. Vexillum
broad, rounded, slightly notched in the middle on the margin,
yellow, with a light purple half circle near the bottom, which is
slightly branched into short lines. Alee or wings linearly spa-
thulate, eared at the base, with a very slender unguis. Keel