suffruticose, erect, thinly silky-canescent or appresso-pubescent; branches quadrangular; leaves on long petioles, 4–8 (10)- jugate; leaflets narrow-linear, acute, 2–3- uncial, complicate or open, glabrous above, appressedly silky and paler beneath, obliquely nerve-striate; stipules setaceo-subulate, shorter than the petiole; peduncles terminal and opposite the leaves, interruptedly racemose near the summit; legumes narrow-linear, 2–3 uncial, fulvo-tomentose, compressed, many-seeded; style bearded. Stems 1–2 feet high, curved at base, then erect, subsimple, pale. Leaves 4–6 inches long; leaflets in several pairs, 1 1/2–2 1/2 inches long, 1–2 lines wide, acute at each end, but not tapering, mucronate and sometimes hook-pointed, as in var. β., which is a stronger growing plant, with broader leaflets. Flowers in pairs, 1–2 inches apart, several on a lengthening raceme. Legumes 3 inches long, 2 lines wide.
