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ASTRAGALUS uralenfis.
Hairy Mountain M ilkw ort.
D I A D E L P H I A Decandria.
Gen. Char. Pod of two cells, fwelling.
Spec. Char. Stem none. Stalk upright, longer
than the leaves. Pods oblong, hairy, eredt.
Syn. Aftragalus uralenfis. Linn. Sp. PI. 1071. Hudf.
323. JVith. 644. Light/. 401. t. 17.
T H I S has been found, chiefly in a fandy foil, on various
mountains of Scotland ; it was fent by the late Dr. Hope to
Linnaeus, and we have received it from Mr. Mackay and Mr.
Bruce.
The root is ftrong, woody and perennial, dividing at the
crown into feveral leafy tufts. Leaves all radical, fpreading,
pinnate: leaflets felhle, generally oppofite, the lowermoft often
more remote and fometimes alternate, the terminal one generally
fmaller than the reft; all of them are ovate, fometimes
lanceolate, entire, acute, a little concave above, clothed all
over, but efpecially beneath, with filky hairinefs, as is the
common footftalk likewife, which is often more permanent
than the leaflets, hardening into a fort of fpine. It has a pair
of broad membranous ftipulse at the bafe. Stalk Ample, hairy,
upright, a little longer than the leaves, bearing a Ihort Ample
fpike (erroneoufly reprefented branched in Lightfoot’s Agure)
of handfome purple flowers, whofe calyx is clothed with a
mixture of black and white hairs. Bra&eae lanceolate, hairy.
Pods eretft, inflated, cylindrical, rather more than half ati inch
long, terminating in a lharp oblique point, thickly clothed with
brown clofe-prefled hairs. It flowers in July.
Copious wild fpecimens of this plant from Mr. Bruce, as
well as thofe of Dr. Hope, being compared with the two original
Siberian ones of Linnaeus, leave not the leaft doubt of
its being his A. uralenfis, though his are more luxuriant than
ours, as alfo thofe defcribed in the Hortus Upfalienfis, copied
by Dr. Withering, appear to have been. Hence arofe fome
uncertainty refpeding the identity of the Scotch AJlragalus,
which we are happy to remove. A Swifs fpecimen from Mr.
D avail proves it alfo to be the No. 410 o f Haller, as quoted by
all authors.