£ 220 ] 1
T R I F O L I U M marltimum.
Teafel-headed Trefoil.
D IA D E L P H IA Decandria.
G e n . C har. Flowers more or lefs capitate. Pod
Scarcely longer than the calyx, never burftingr
but falling off entire.
S p e c . C h a r . Spikes hairy, globofe. Stipulse lanceolate,
erett. ^ Calyx-teeth fpreading, and dilated
after flowering. Leaflets obovato-lanceolate, the
lowermoft obcordate s upper leaves oppofite.
S y n . Trifolium maritimum. Hudf. FL An. ed i
284.
T . ftellatum. Hudf. FL An. ed. 2. 326. With. Bot.
Arr. 799.
T . ftellatum glabrum. Rail Syn. 220. Ger. em. 1208.
Pluk. Phyt. t. 113. ƒ. 4.
nr — rr--- -— ~~ X H E above are the only certain fynonyms we can find for
this Trefoil. Mr. Hudfon rightly publifhed it as new in his
firft edition, and fent it to Linnaeus, who has preferved it in
his Herbarium, marked Hudfon’s T. maritimum, without referring
it to any of his own, yet he neglected to infert it in his
fubfequent works. _ We are at a lofs to guefs why Mr. Hudfon
afterwards took this plant for T. ftellatum, a very different
fpecies, as is evident from the figures erroneoufly quoted (except
Plukenet’s) in the Bot. Arr. which are the real ■ftellatum.
X. maritimum grows in falt-marfhes, and meadows near the
fea in various parts of England, from Norfolk all along the
fouth and weft coaft to W ales. Mr. Wigg has fent it from
Yarmouth, and Sir Thomas Cullum from Weymouth. The
former affures us the root is certainly annual, as Ray marks it.
The ftems are fpreading and branched, ere£t only when many
grow together, a little hairy, very various in height. Leaves
alternate, except the uppermoft pair; leaflets obovate, narrow,
minutely notched at the tip, of a darkifh green. Stipulse. very
narrow. Spikes fhort, almoft globofe. Calyx-teeth (harp, a little
unequal in the flower, and more fo in the fruit, in which laft ftate
they become broad and fpreading. Petals nearly equal in length,
palilh red. The original obferver of this fpecies feems to have
been Dr. Johnfon, the editor, if not always the emendator,
of. Gerarde’s Herbal.