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A S T R A G A L U S hypoglottis.
D I A D E L P H I A Decandr'ia.
G en. Char. Pod of two cells, fwelling.
Spec. C har. Stem proflrate. Flowers in round
heads. Pods ovate, with a channel along the
back, comprefled, hairy ; tip reflexed.
S yn. Aftragalus hypoglottis. Linn. Mant. 2. 274.
Sibth. FI. Oxon. 227.
A . arenarius. HudJ. F I. An. 323. Relh. Cant. 278.
FI. Dan. t. 614.
A . Danicus. Retz. Obf. 3. 41. With. Rot. Arr. 787.
A . incanus parvus purpureus noltras. Rail Syn. 326.
t. i z. f . 3.
T ,
H IS elegant little plant abounds on our dry heaths, as
in the chaiky tracts of Cambridgefhire, and on fome elevated
gravelly or fandy i'pots of Scotland as well as England,
flowering throughout June and July. By the fynonyms above
cited it appears to have been much mifunderftood, which arofe
from Linnaeus’s referring Ray’s figure and defcription to his
arenarius, and in fuch miftakes Mr. Hudfon often too
implicitly followed him. Linnaeus afterwards ftrangely confounded
it with epiglottis ; but at length atoned for all by his'
excellent defcription in the Mantijfa altera, where he firft gives
it as a new fpecies by the name of hypoglottis, which Dr,
Sibthorp learned from the Linnsean herbarium.
Roots perennial, branched, long, llender and creeping.
Stems zigzag, but little branched, procumbent, angular, hairy,
fet with alternate, fpreading, pinnated leaves, of about 6 pair
or more, of elliptic-ovate, bluntifh leaflets, gradually leflening,
and with a fmaller odd terminal one; they are clothed with
white clofe hairs beneath, but nearly fmooth above. The
Flora Danica reprefents them oval and very fharp, with the
ufual indifcriminative fweeping cut of that work, fo like the
figures of Sir John Hill. Heads of flowers one or two on
each flem, erect, axillary, folitary, fcarcely longer than the
leaves till after flowering. Bractese ovate, acute. Stalk and
calyx clothed with black hairs mixed more or lefs with white
ones, as in many exotic fpecies. Corolla of a beautiful purple.
Pods (which are not very well drawn by Dillenius in Ray’s
Synopfis) ereft, ovate, triangular, the two outermoft angles
brought together fo as to- form a channel, the tip fharp, curved
backward, whole furface black and rough, clothed with long
?vhitifh prominent hairs. The flowers fometimes vary to white.