shrubby, rigid, divaricately much-branched, unarmed or spinous, subglabrous; leaves short-petioled, trifoliolate; leaflets oblong-cuneate, obovate or linear-oblong, obtuse, mucronulate, coriaceous, expanded, glabrous or puberulous beneath, (the terminal sometimes petioled); stipules obsolete or minute, toothlike; racemes canescent, subsessile, equalling or somewhat exceeding the leaf, laxly few-flowered; calyx canous, bluntly 5-toothed; petals pubescent; legumes terete, straight, mucronate, minutely strigillose. A very rigid, much and intricately branched bush, laxly covered with coriaceous, veinless leaves: varying slightly in pubescence, and considerably in the proportions of the leaflets, which are commonly 4–5 lines long, and 1–2 1/2 wide. Vars. δ. and ε. seem to have constantly simple or unifoliolate leaves, but do not otherwise differ from the broader and narrower leaved forms. Var. γ. seems to owe its peculiarities either to richer soil, or to the effect of surface burning, producing a more luxuriant state of the plant.
