PEA FAMILY (PULSE FAMILY) 113 



Aeschynomene virginica. Joint vetch. Erect. Flowers 

 reddish yellow, small. Pods of 5-10 joints. Leaflets 27-53. 

 Sandy soil. Blooming from spring to fall. Fla. to N. G. 

 and La. 



Zornia bracteata. The flowering-spikes of this pea are 

 oddly beaded with green bracts, which partly conceal the 

 small yellow flowers and bristly, 2-5-jointed seedpods. The 

 slender stems, 1-2 ft. long, spread on the ground in dry places 

 in summer, and bear singular leaves of four narrow or oval 

 spreading leaflets. 



Stylosanthes biflora. Flowers yellow, small, few, in ter- 

 minal spikes. Pod small, 1-2-jointed. Stems wiry, 6-20 in. 

 tall. Leaflets 3, elliptic or linear, pointed, strongly veined, 

 about 1 in. long. Dry soil. Blooming in spring and sum- 

 mer. Fla. to N. Y., Texas, and Kan. 



Beggarweed. Tick Trefoil (Genus Desmodium 



(Meibomia)) 



By their annoying seedpods beggarweeds are recognized, 

 for the plants would seldom attract attention were it not 

 for the fruit of several flat, easily separable joints covered 

 with hooked hairs, which cling to the clothing of passers-by. 



The leaves of our common species are three-foliate, or 

 rarely one-foliate, and the small pink or purplish flowers 

 are in loosely-flowered racemes. The plants are common 

 in dry pinelands and on roadsides. D. rhomhifolium has 

 broad leaflets, two to three inches long. D. strictum has 

 narrow leaflets, one to two inches long. Both are erect, 

 with long terminal racemes. Of the trailing beggarweeds 

 D. triflorurrij the smallest, is common in many places, 

 covering the ground with little clover-like leaves, and 

 bearing a few tiny flowers in the leaf-axils. 



Bush Clover (Genus Lespedeza) 



Plants of this genus, whose name records that of the 

 Spanish governor of Florida in the time of the botanist 

 Michaux, are related to the beggarweeds, but differ from 



