Addisonia 35 



(Plate 210) 



LATHYRUS LATIFOLIUS 

 Everlasting Pea 



Native oj Europe 



Family Fabaceae Psa Family 



Lathyrus latifolius L. Sp. PI. 733. 1753. 



This attractive climber is frequently grown in flower-gardens, 

 requiring little care and asking only some kind of a support, often 

 forming large masses of interlocking vines several feet in length; 

 this vigor of growth has sometimes to be combated, or the plant 

 will get out of hand. It is quite hardy in the northeastern United 

 States, and is occasionally seen as an escape from cultivation along 

 roadsides from southern New England to Virginia, its seeds probably 

 distributed by birds. The flowers vary considerably in color, and 

 tend to change color in fading. The plant furnishing our illus- 

 tration was obtained from the Andorra Nurseries in 1913, under 

 the varietal name "Pink Beauty." 



The everlasting pea is a smooth herbaceous vine with perennial 

 roots. The stems and branches have conspicuous thin longitudinal 

 wings. The lanceolate pointed stipules are from about half an 

 inch to an inch long; the leaf -stalks are as long as the stipules or 

 longer, and are winged like the stem; there are only two leaflets to 

 each leaf and a slender branched tendril; the leaflets are oblong- 

 lanceolate to elliptic, two inches to four inches long and strongly 

 veined. The flowers are in short racemes at the ends of peduncles 

 usually longer than the leaves and are purple, pink or sometimes 

 white and nearly an inch in length. The pod is nearly straight, a 

 little flattened, tipped, three or four inches long. 



N. L. Britton. 



Explanation of Plate. Fig. 1. — Inflorescence. Fig. 2. — Portion of stem 

 and leaf. Fig. 3. — Fruit. 



