/ ( o ' .
M E D1C A G O poly morpha.
Heart Medick, or Claver.
DIADELPHIA Decandria.
Gen. Char. Pod compressed, spiral, forcing back
the keel of the corolla from the standard.
Spec. Char. Pods coiled up like a snail. Stipulas
somewhat toothed. Stem spreading on the ground.
S yn. Medicago polymorpha. Linn. Sp. PI. 1098, ■%.
Sm. FI. Brit. 797* Huds. 331. Relh. 292. Curt.
Land. fasc. 3. t. 4 7 - Mart. Rust. t. 76.
M. arabica. TVith. 660. Sym. 167. Hull. 165.
M. maculata. Sibth. 232.
Trifolium cochleatum, folio cordato maculato. Raii
Syn. 333. n. 1 : also n. 2, 3 and 5 , following.
SEN T by the Rev. Mr. Hemsted from near Bedford. It
occurs in several of the southern parts of England, on a gravelly
soil, flowering in May and June. We have gathered it
plentifully under the wall of Richmond gardens next the river.
The Rev. Dr. Beeke finds it abundant in many maritime
parishes of Devonshire.
The root is annual, furnished with little fleshy knobs as in
Vida lathyroides, and others of the same family. Stems
prostrate, branched and spreading, angular. Stipulas more
or less deeply cut. Leaflets inversely heartshaped, ribbed,
sharply toothed. Flowerstalks axillary, solitary, slender, hairy,
each bearing commonly 3 yellow flowers. The germen becomes
spiral after impregnation, and is coiled up into a ball,
like a snail’s shell, the outer edge of each circumvolution
being beset with little prominent teeth.
In this variety, which is the most common, the leaflets are
each marked with a black spot: in some others they are more
silky, and the spines on the fruit also vary in form. Experiments
are requisite to prove whether these supposed varieties
are distinct species or not.