pendulis. Linn. Hort. Cliff. 362. Fl. Suec. ed. 1.
592. Royen. Hort. Leyd. Prodr. 392.
A. caule procumbente ramoso, foliis ovatis, siliquis
inflatis pendulis hirsutis. Hall. Helvet. v. 1.176.
n. 404.
A. caulescens procumbens, floribus pendulis race-
mosis, leguminibus utrinque acutis pilosis. Gme-
lin, FI. Sibiric. v. 4. 45.
Pliaca minima. Allion. Fl. Ped. v. 1.338. n. 1256.
Ph. astragalina. DeCand. Astrag. 64. Fl. Franç.
v. 4.564. Prodr. v. 2. 274. Bot. Gall.v. 1. 140.
Pers. Synops. v. 2.331. Poiret, Encyc. Method.
Suppl, v. I. 561. Spreng. Syst. Feget, v. 3.292.
Benth. PI. Pyren. 111. Richardson, App. to
Franklin’s 1st Journey, n.288. Hooker, Fl.Bo-
reali-Amer.v. 1.145. Loudon, Encyc. of Plants,
636, with a figure.
T h e addition of this plant to the British Flora formed
the principal event in the botanical excursion from Edinburgh
this season; during which I was accompanied, as
usual, by some of my most zealous pupils, and favoured, as
in other years, by the presence of some excellent friends.
It was discovered on the same day (30th July) on a cliff
near the head of the Glen of the Dole, Clova, by Mr. Brand,
Dr. Greville, and myself. The station is circumscribed ; but
it is believed by Mr. Hewett Watson and Dr. Greville, that
they afterwards saw it in the station of Oxytropis cam-
pestris. The accompanying figure was obligingly finished
by Dr. Greville, from a sketch which I requested him to
make upon the spot.
Root woody, perennial, creeping far, covered with pale
yellowish-brown bark, sweet-tasted, and throwing up many
spreading crowns. Stems slender, much branched, diffused,
prostrate, gray, glabrous; the younger branches green,
pubescent, as also are the peduncles, pedicels, calyx, petioles,
leaves, and outside of the stipules; pubescence ad-
pressed. Stipules ovate, sub-acute, sub-coalescing opposite
to the leaf, free from the petiole, nerved, smooth on the
inside. Petioles (3—4 inches long)channelled;leaflets ovato-
elliptical, pubescent on both sides, but especially the lower,
occasionally retuse, about ten pairs and a terminal fone
subopposite, awanting on the lower third of the petiole.
Peduncles axillary, often shorter than the leaves When in
flower, when in fruit rather longer, stout, angled, ascending.
Flowers (about 8—14) collected towards the extremity of the
peduncle into a short spicate raceme; pedicels, especially
when in fruit, pendulous, covered with dark pubescence.
Bractem small, blunt, reflected, one at the base of each
pedicel. Calyx campanulate, scarcely as long as the pedicels;
mouth somewhat oblique, five-toothed, the upper teeth
distant, the lowest the longest. Corolla white, tipped with
lilac; vexillum emarginate, reflexed; alse linear-spathu-
late, claws much attenuated, tooth blunt linear less than
half the length of the claw ; keel notched, about as long as
the vexillum, longer than the alae, teeth short and blunt,
claw undivided. Stamens diadelphous, equal, nearly as
long as the k eel; anthers small, oblong, orange-yellow.
Pistil rather longer than the stamens ; stigma minute,
capitate, somewhat hairy ; style glabrous, nearly round ;
germen oblong, silky-hairy, on a footstalk about equal to
its own length. Unripe legume pendulous, inflated, flattened
and slightly channelled at the lower suture, wedge-
shaped towards the upper, covered with black hairs; a
narrow imperfect dissepiment is formed along the lower
suture. Ovules 5—10, attached to the upper suture, rarely
more than two proving fertile, suspended on the opposite
sides of the imperfect dissepiment. I have not seen the
ripe fruit.
Wahlenberg asserts (FI. Helvet. loc. cit.) that the Astragalus'
alpinus Linn., to which DeCandolle had referred in
FI. Frang. as a synonyme for his Phaca astragalina, differs
froin it generically. DeCandolle however, after the publication
of Wahlenberg’s remarks, repeats the reference
in his Prodromus, considering the difference as only marking
a variety. I have endeavoured to settle this point by
a careful examination of authentic specimens from various
parts of the world in the Herbaria of Linnaeus, Sir James
E. Smith, Mr. Brown, Dr. Boott, the University of Edinburgh,
and in my own. Those from Siberia, Switzerland,
and the Pyrenees, I have found to be identical with each
other, and with our Scotch plant. Linnaeus, in his own
hand-writing, marks his specimen, “ Astragalus alpinus
minimus;' and refers to Flora Lap. 267. DeCandolle
does the same as a synonyme for his Phaca astragalina.
The plants from the Rocky Mountains, North America,
differ very little from these ; those from Lapland a little
more ; and the form furthest removed is that found by Captain
Parry at Melville Island. These last differ, as Mr.
Brown observed, by the teeth of the calyx being longer,