MEDICAGO falcata.
Yellow Medick.
DIA DELPHIA Decandria.
Gen. Char. Pod compreffed, fpiral, forcing back
the keel o f the corolla from the ftandard.
Spec. Char. Flower-ftalks racemofe. Pods fickle-
fhaped. Stem procumbent.
Syn. Medicago falcata. Linn. Sp. P L 1096. Sm.
F l. Brit. 796. Hudf. 330. With. 658. Hull. 165.
Relh. 2,85. Mart. F l. Ruß. t. 86 & 87.
Medica fylveflris. Raii Syn. 333.
T h i s plant is confined to a gravelly or chalky foil, and
is no where fo abundant as about Norwich, in the borders of
gravelly fields and on the city walls in many places. Mr.
Relhan mentions feveral ftations for it in Cambridgelhire,
but we have rarely feen it elfewhere. It is perennial, and
flowers very copioufly in July.
Root long, woody. Stems numerous, procumbent* widely
fpreading, round, hairy, leafy, branched. Leaves ternate;
leaflets narrow-obovate, ferrated towards the point. Stipulaj
acute, joined to the foot-ftalk. Flowers many together on a
common ftalk, and each on a partial {lender one, bra&eated
at the bafe. Corolla generally pale yellow, but occafionally
violet, and often green, aS it were from a combination of
thefe 2 colours. Pods black, downy, fickle-fhaped, not twilled
into a fcrew as in M. fativa, to which this fpecies is other-
wife greatly allied. Seeds from 4 to 8.
The germen when young is held in a ffraight pofition by
the petals of the keel, but foon liberates itfelf with a fpring,
which ferves to dafh the pollen about the fligma. See Sm.
Traäs, 173. This fpecies, like the fativa, affords good food
for cattle, but the pofition of its flems is lefs commodious for
their feeding or for mowing.