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LOTUS difFufus.
Slender Bird's-foot Trefoil.
DIADELPHIA Decandria.
G e n . C h a r . Pod cylindrical, ftraight. Wings of the
corolla cohering by their upper edge. Calyx
tubular.
S p e c . C h a r . Flower-flalks mollly fingle-flovvered.
Stem much branched, proftrate. Leaves and calyx
hairy. Pods round, linear, and very flender.
S y n . Lotus difFufus. Sm. FI. B r it. 794.
Trifolium corniculatum minus, pilofum. Bauh.
Prod. 144.
JV ^R . DICKSON fir ft obferved this new fpecies of Lotus on
the rocky beach at Haftings, from whence it was brought us
by Mr. E. Forfter. Mr. Turner and Mr. Sowerby remarked
it growing plentifully in a meadow near St. Vincent’s rocks,
Briftol. Linnaeus confounded it with his L . angujlijfimus,
which is a larger plant, with fmooth leaves, and fhorter,
much thicker, pods.
The plant before us has a long, apparently perennial, root,
furnifhed with tubercles as in p icia lathyroides. Stems procumbent,
branched, very leafy, hairy. Leaflets and ftipulae
all of the fame fliape, ovate, pointed, rather glaucous, hairy
on both fides. Flower-flalks axillary, bearing one flower
(rarely two), accompanied by 3 feflile leaflets. Calyx flender-
funnel-fhaped, very hairy, reddifh. Petals full yellow, not
orange-coloured. Pod when ripe above an inch long, ftraight,
very flender, cylindrical,. or but little comprefled, pointed,
brown, fmooth and finning, cellular within, containing many
fmall globular feeds.
The firft flowers appear in May and June, and are followed
by a long fucceflion of others. Their fmall fize, and nearly
folitary mode of growth, readily diflinguifh this fpecies from
the common one. The fpecific name was given by Dr. Solander,
who defcribed fpecimens gathered in Madeira.