PEA FAMILY 



APIOS. GROUNDNUT. WILD BEAN 



Apios tuber dsa 



Apios, Greek, pear, from the shape of the tuber. 



Native. A twining perennial vine, found in moist 

 ground, with pinnately compound leaves; bearing axil- 

 lary racemes of brownish red, Pea-like, fragrant flow- 

 ers. New Brunswick to Ontario and Minnesota. July- 

 October. 



Root. — Tuberous, pear-shaped, edible. 



Stem. — Slender, twining, with milky juice. 



Leaves. — Alternate, petioled, pinnately compound. Leaf- 

 lets five to seven, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, acute at apex, 

 rounded at base, margin entire. 



Flowers. — Papilionaceous, pale brownish red, densely 

 crowded in a rounded or lengthened raceme, two to three 

 inches long, borne solitary in the axils of the leaves. 

 Fragrant. Racemes often compound. 



Calyx. — Small, campanulate, somewhat two-lipped. 

 Two side teeth small, two upper united and short; the 

 lower long, acute. 



Corolla. — Standard orbicular, spreading. Wings ob- 

 liquely obovate, adherent to the keel which is long, in- 

 curved, scythe-shaped. 



Stamens. — Diadelphous, nine and one. 



Pistil. — Ovary linear; style slender; ovules many. 



Fruit. — Pointed pod, one to three inches long. 



This blooming vine, hiding among the bushes of 

 a wayside thicket, twining around a stem of Golden- 

 rod or Evening Primrose, trailing on the ground when 

 nothing better offers, may often when in full bloom 

 be discovered by the fragrance alone. 



The flowering raceme is most interesting. In the 



98 



