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H I P P O C R E P I S comofa.
'Tufted Horfefhoe Vetch.
7 3 /
D IA D E L P H IA Decandria.
G en. C h a r . Pod comprelfed, with many deep
notches in one of its edges.
S p e c . C h a r . Pods pedunculated, cluftered, curved,
waved in the external margin.
S y n . Hippocrepis comofa. Linn. Sp. PL 1050. Hud/.
FI. An. 321. With. Bot. Arr. 783. Relh. Cantab.
276.
Ferrum equinum germanicum filiquis in fummitate.
Rail Syn. 325.
P l e n t i f u l on dry chalky banks and hills in Kent,
Cambridgefhire, and other parts of England ; but being found
in no other kind of foil, it is reckoned among the rarer Englilh
vegetables. The root is long, woody, and apparently perennial,
as moll authors make it. Stems numerous, and procumbent.
Flowers pale yellow ftreaked with brown, far lefs fpe-
cious than thofe of Lotus corniculatus y with which they are
generally intermixed, and may therefore be ealily overlooked.
But when the pods appear, their' Angular figure cannot
fail to ftrike the moft cafual obferver. The flowers are to
be met with from May to Auguft ; the pods moft part of the
fummer and autumn.
The defcriptions of Hippocrepis comofa quoted in the Botanical
Arrangement are very good, and all certainly belong
to the fame fpecies.