CLASSES OF PLANTS 



439 



10. Rose family. Besides the many varieties of attractive 

 flowers and perfumes which we get from this family, we have 

 also the most widely used cultivated fruits— apples, pears, 

 plums, peaches, apricots, almonds, cherries, raspberries, black- 

 berries, and strawberries. From the seeds of cherries, plums, 

 and almonds a violent poison, prussic acid, is made. The woods 

 of most of the trees make 

 valuable material for small 

 wares and furniture. The 

 mountain ash belongs to 

 this family. 



11. Pulse family. This 

 includes the lowly clover 

 and alfalfa and the stately 

 acacia and locust trees. 

 With the grasses and palms 

 it is perhaps the most val- 

 uable single family of 

 plants in the variety of 

 uses to which its members 

 are put. We get fodder for 

 our cattle and substantial 

 food for man — many va- 

 rieties of beans, peas, len- 

 tils, " St. John's bread," and 

 peanuts. They furnish pro- 

 teins in larger proportion than any other plant material that 

 we can use as food, as well as starch and oil. Gum arabic and 

 gum tragacanth, of great value in the arts, are obtained from 

 this group. Dyes are supplied by the indigo shrub and the log- 

 wood tree. Copal, sl very valuable varnish, is dug from the 

 ground in parts of South America and in Zanzibar. From the 

 presence of bits of leaf and bark in the varnish, we know it 

 to be the fossilized resin of certain plants of this bean family. 

 This is a very successful family and accordingly has many 

 species growing wild in all parts of the world. 



Fig. I So. The sour cherry {Prumis 

 cerasus) 



Many varieties of this member of the rose 

 family are cultivated for the fruit 



