echinate, dehiscent?, 1—4-seeded.—Perennial herbs : roots sweet. Leaves unequally
pinnate. Racemes spicate, many-flowered. Flowers white, violet,
or blue.—Liquorice.
1. G.lepidota (Nutt.): leaflets oblong-lanceolate, acute, minutely strigose
with glandular scales beneath; stipuleslinear-subulate; spikes pedunculate,
nearly the length of the leaves; bracts lanceolate, acuminate; legumes
densely beset with hooked bristles, 2-6-seeded.—Nutt.! sen. 2 p 106 • Bot
mag. t. 2150 ; DC. 1. c.; Hook. Jl. Bor.-Am. 1. p. 138.
On the Missouri, from near St. Louis! and Arkansas ! to Oregon ! and
north to the Saskatchawan.—Roots long and creeping, with the taste of
liquorice. Stem 2-5 feet high. Flowers whitish. Legume resembling the
fruit of Xanthium spinosum, but rather smaller—Mr. Nuttall remarks that
this species isvery nearly allied to G. fcetida of Northern Africa; and Hooker,
on comparing the the two plants, could find no distinguishing character.
2- G. glutinosa (Nutt, mss.) : “ leaflets oblong and oblong-lanceolate, strigose
with scaly glands; stems and calyx pubescent with glandular hairs;
spikes pedunculate, much shorter than the leaves ; bracts with a long acuminate
point; calyx nearly equal.
“ Banks of Lewis’s River, with the preceding, which it closely resembles ;
but the calyx and stems, as well as peduncles, are thickly covered with gland-
lar hairs, and the peduncles are scarcely half the length of the leaves.” Nuttall.
24. INDIGOFERA. L in n .; Lam. ill. t. 626; Gcertn. f r . t. 148; DC.
prodr. 2. p. 221; W. if- Arn. prodr. Ind. Or. 1. p. 198. -
Calyx 5-cleft; segments acute. Vexillum roundish, emarginate: keel
furnished with a subulate spur on each side, at length, often bending back
elastically. Stamens diadelphous. Style filiform, glabrous. Legume continuous,
2-valved, 1-many-seeded. Seeds usually truncated, often separated
by cellular spurious partitions.—Herbaceous or shrubby plants. Leaves various,
usually unequally pinnate or digitate: hairs, either all or some of them,
appressed and attached by their middle. Stipules small, not united with the
petiole. Flowers in axillary racemes, purple, blue, or white ; many of the
upper ones o f each raceme frequently becoming abortive.—Indigo-plant. 1 2
1. I. Caroliniana (Walt.) : stem herbaceous, erect, with terete branches
leaves on short petioles, unequally pinnate; leaflets 5-7 pairs, eval-oblong’
petiolulate, clothed with a sparse appressed pubescence; racemes slender
longer than the leaves ; legumes pendulous, oblong, turgid, about 2-seeded’
reticulately rugose.— Walt. ft. Car. p. 187; Michx.! ft. 2. p. 68; Ell. sk 2*
p. 244; DC. prodr. 2. p. 229. . ,
Dry sterile soils, North Carolina ! to Florida t July-Sept.—2f Stem 3-7
feet high, branched. Leaflets nearly an inch long, obtuse or refuse mu-
cronate, somewhat glaucous beneath. Racemes 3-6 inches long. Flowers
pedicellate, one-third of an inch long. Calyx very small; teeth short, acute.
Corolla yellowish-brown: vexillum ovate, hairy: keel and wings glabrous.
Legume nearly glabrous, 4-5 lines long, pointed with the base of the style.
2. I. leptosepala (N u tt! mss.) : Tough and cinereous with appressed hairs ;
stem herbaceous, decumbent; leaves unequally pinnate, on short petioles;
leaflets 3-4 pairs, obovate-oblong or cuneiform, nearly sessile, somewhat glabrous
on the upper surface; racemes pedunculate, longer than the leaves
6-15-flowered, the flowers nearly sessile ; calyx deeply parted ; the segments
attenuate-subulate, equal; legumes linear, reflexed, somewhat quadrangular
or nearly terete, straight and even, 6-9-seeded.—I. n. sp. T o r r.! in ann.
lyc. New- York, 2. p. 170.
Plains of Arkansas, Nuttall! Dr. James! Dr. Leavenworth ! also Georgia,
Nuttall!— 21 “ Root penetrating deeply, flagellate. Stems procumbent,
2-3 feet long. Stipules subulate, minute. Leaves very much like those of
the Common Indigo; strigose and almost hoary beneath. Flowers pale
scarlet. Legumes pubescent, an inch and a half long, acuminated by the
persistent style.” Nutt.
25. PSORALEA. L in n .; Lam. ill. t. 614; DC, prodr. 2. p. 216.
Calyx campanulate, persistent, 5-cleft, often glandular; segments acuminate,
the lowest one somewhat longest. Stamens usually diadelphous, the
tenth filament sometimes united with the others at the base. Legume about
the length of the calyx, indehiscent, 1-seeded, sometimes beaked.—Shrubby or
perennial herbaceous plants, usually dotted or almost tuberculate with glands.
Leaves various, usually pinnately or palmately 3-5-foliolate. ' Stipules cohering
with the base of the petiole. Flowers purple, blue, or white, usually
in axillary spikes or racemes.
In all the North American Psoralese the filaments (except the upper one) are united
their whole length, forming a 9-toothed stamineal sheath; the alternate teeth
shorter; and often only 5 of the anthers are perfect.
* Leaves palmately Z-o-foliolate.
1. P. lanceolata (Pursh) : nearly glabrous; stems assurgent, often dichotomous,
erect; leaves 3-foliolate, dotted (as likewise the calyx) with black
glands ; leaflets linear-lanceolate or elliptical oblong, rather obtuse, slightly
mucronate, sessile; peduncles longer than the leaves; spikes capitate, many-
flowered ; bracts deciduous; teeth of the calyx minute, acute, nearly equal;
legumes globose, hirsute.—P u rsh ! Jl. 2. p. 475 ; Hook. ! Jl. Bor.-Am. 1. p.
135, t. 51. P. elliptica, Pursh! 1. c. P. arenaria, Nutt. ! gen. 2. p. 103;
DC. prodr. 2. p, 219.
S terile sandy soils above the Platte’ and west to the Pacific, L ew is !
(v. s. in herb. Lamb.) Nuttall! Douglas.—Plant slightly hirsute with appressed
hairs. Leaflets about an inch long, variable in breadth, narrowed
downward, the lower ones broader. Raceme 8-10-flowered. Flowers white
tinged with blue. Legume as large as a pea.
2. P. laxiflora (Nutt, mss.) : “ sparingly glandular; young shoots pubescent
: stem dichotomous ; stipules minute; leaves 3-foliolate; leaflets sessile
long and linear, or somewhat oblong, apiculate; peduncles longer than the
leaves; spikes short, with the flowers somewhat distant; calyx small and
pubescent, the teeth obtuse.
“ Plains of the Platte.—Resembles the preceding, but the spikes are larger,
the bracts very minute and the leaves longer.” Nuttall.
3. P. tenuiflora (Pursh) : nearly glabrous and conspicuously dotted with
blackish glands; stem diffuse, with the branches slender; leaves 3-foliolate;
leaflets oblong-elliptical, obtuse ; racemes filiform, few-flowered, interrupted ;
segments of the calyx nearly equal; bracts shorter than the pedicels persistent.—
Pursh ! jl. 2. p. 475 ; Nutt. gen. 2. p. 103 ; DC. prodr. 2. p. 220.
Plains of the Missouri near the Arikaree village. Nuttall, Lewis ! Bradbury
! (v. s. in herb. Lamb.)—Stem 2 feet high. Leaves on short petioles •
leaflets 4-6 lines long, thick, petiolulate. Racemes 2-3 inches long; the
flowers 3 together, very small, pale purple.—Habit of Baptisia tinctoria.