Ebenus
(from ebenos, ebony). ORD. Leguminosae. A genus of about eight species of elegant little herbs or sub-shrubs, chiefly confined to the Mediterranean region and Asia Minor, though one species is found as far east as Beloochistan. Flowers pink, in dense spikes or round heads; peduncles axillary or terminal. Leaves usually unequally pinnate, made up of three to five pairs of lance-shaped leaflets, though in a few they are digitate or simple. For culture, &c., see Anthyllis.
E. cretica (Cretan). fl. reddish or purple, in ovate-cylindrical spikes; staminiferous tube elegantly striated. June, July. l. rarely trifoliolate, usually impari-pinnate, with two pairs of leaflets and an odd sessile one; leaflets oblong-linear; stipules connected, and therefore bifid at the apex and opposite the leaves. h. 1ft. to 2ft. Candia, 1737. Shrubby species. SYN. Anthyllis cretica. (B. M. 1092.) E. pinnata (pinnate). A synonym of E. Sibthorpii.
E. Sibthorpii (Sibthorp's).* fl. in spherical spikes; corolla purplish, about equal in length to the calyx; bracts three or four, broad, ovate, appearing like an involucre at the base of each head of flowers. l. impari-pinnate, with four or five pairs of oblong-linear, mucronate leaflets; stipules distinct, acuminate, bifid. Stem clothed with adpressed pubescence. Mounts Atlas and Parnassus. Herbaceous. SYN. E. pinnata. (S. F. G. 740.)