118 FLAX FAMILY 



inches long and about an inch broad, are noticeable on 

 the sands, as are the large leathery leaves of three roundish 

 leaflets. Eacemes of rose-colored flowers are borne on 

 stout stalks from the leaf-axils. 



Wild Pea. Vetch {Vicm acutifolia) 



Our common pea of this genus is easily identified by 

 the delicate tendrils that terminate the pinnate leaves. 

 The slender stems, with leaves of two, four, or six narrow 

 leaflets, and long-stalked axillary racemes of small pale 

 blue flowers, climb on grasses and other plants of sandy 

 soil, and also invade cultivated land. It blooms chiefly 

 from spring to fall, but its flowers are often seen in winter 

 in southern Florida. 



Sweet peas and garden peas are closely related to this 

 genus, and the cultivated crab's-eye vine, Ahrus preca- 

 torius, with dark green pinnate leaves, and bright red seeds 

 capped with black at one end, is allied to it, though the 

 leaves lack tendrils. The seeds of the crab's-eye vine have 

 long been used in India as a standard of weight (that of 

 the Kohinoor diamond being thus ascertained), and also 

 for Buddists' rosaries. 



GERANIUM FAMILY {Geraniaceae) 



Geranium carolinianuin. Wild geranium. Crane's-bill. 

 Flowers pale pink, small, in stalked, axillary clusters. Sepals 

 5, petals 5, stamens 10. Capsules long-beaked. Stems 8-20 

 in. long, erect or spreading, hairy. Leaves roundish, 1-3 in. 

 wide, deeply cleft and toothed, long-stalked. Dry soil and 

 waste places. Blooming in spring and summer. Fla. to New 

 England and westward. 



FLAX FAMILY (Linaceae) 



Cathartolinum Curtissii (Linum). Yellow flax. Flowers 

 yellow, small, scattered along slender upper branches. Sepals 



