PEA FAMILY (PULSE FAMILY) 117 



bears stalked racemes of many fragrant brown and maroon 

 flowers, about half an inch long, of peculiar form, as the 

 velvet-like standard is broad and reflexed, and the keel is 

 curved inward and is spirally twisted. The roots bear 

 small edible tubers. Seeds are more frequently found on 

 this vine in Florida than in northern states, where they 

 often fail to mature. 



Wild Bean (Phaseolus sinuatus) 



Flowers of this genus, like those of Apios, differ from 

 our others of this family in having a spirally twisted keel. 

 The long, slender stems of this bean trail on the ground 

 in dry pinelands, and bear attractive dark green leaves 

 of three small, triangular, three-lobed leaflets, often 

 blotched with lighter color, and small pink or purple 

 flowers in long-stalked axillary racemes. The curved 

 seedpods are an inch and a half long. Garden beans of 

 various types belong to this genus. 



Wild Pea (Vigna repens) 



In low grounds near the coast, and inland for several 

 miles along the banks of streams in southern Florida, one 

 of the common peas is Vigna repens, a vine with three- 

 foliate leaves, yellow flowers, about one-half inch long, 

 clustered at the top of long, axillary flower-stalks, and 

 roundish, hairy seedpods one to two inches in length. The 

 leaflets are very variable in size and shape, and the vines 

 sometimes lie in tangled masses on the ground, and some- 

 times climb high on shrubs and trees. 



The cultivated cow-pea is of this genus. 



Beach Bean {Canavalia oltusifolia) 



This plant stretches stout stems along the beaches of 

 southern Florida, where its heavy seedpods, four to six 



