PEA FAMILY 



Stamens. — Diadelphous, nine and one, filament tube 

 and single filament white. 



Pistil. — Pea-like, style filiform not bearded. 



Fruit. — Of two kinds: pods from the upper flowers 

 linear-oblong, several-seeded, two-valved; pods from 

 cleistogamous flowers, mainly one-seeded and subter- 

 ranean, small, round, and white. 



Early in autumn one often finds great beds 

 of the pretty three-leaved vine of the Wild 

 Peanut, twisting its stems about every available 

 weed, or trailing off into the grass and spreading 

 them a twining mass upon the ground. The 

 leaves are pale in color, thin of texture, and dull 

 of surface. 



The plant is interesting in that it bears two 

 kinds of flowers: a pretty little lilac pea in a 

 nodding raceme which, however, with all Its 

 dainty beauty rarely ripens a pod, and the other 

 a bud-flower, cleistogamous, a flower that does 

 not open; on the contrary, at flowering time It 

 drives the pistil as far as It can underground, 

 that the pod may mature there; In this way 

 doing just what the real Peanut does, from which 



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