WALDRON— THE PE.ANUT 311 



lowing is a description of the species, the suggested sub-species and 

 the common varieties. 



Arachis hypogaea 

 Family Leguminosae Sub-family Hedysareae 



An herbaceous annual. 



Roots — fibrous, delicate and white when young. Root hairs 

 usually in rosettes at the base of the side roots — rarely with normal 

 tip hairs. Nodules spherical; surface gray, interior pink; appear- 

 ing when plants are 8-10 weeks old. 



Hvpocotyl — 2-8 cm. long, sometimes slightly swollen at base dur- 

 ing germination. 



Stems — 30-80 cm. long, erect, or prostrate, more or less hairy, 

 tough, flexible, slightly quandrangular. Main stem usually branch- 

 ing early into cotyledonary branches. 



Cotyledons — low epigeal, green, with short, thick petiole; remain- 

 ing fleshy for two to three weeks, when they dry and drop off. 



Leaves — sensitive to light, 8-12 cm. long, alternate, stipulate, 

 pinnately compound. Stipules linear-lanceolate, erect, striate. Pet- 

 iole straight, firm, with a single groove along the upper side; a pulvinus 

 at its base. Leaflets 2-5 cm. long, four in two pairs, oblong to obo- 

 vate; apex rotund and tipped by a tiny spine; veins pinnately 

 arranged; under surface slightly hairy; each attached to the petiole 

 by a short pulvinus which causes them to close together vertically 

 in pairs at night. 



Inflorescence — an axillary, usually three flowered, fascicled and 

 reduced head. 



Flowers — yellow, the larger more terminal ones usually sterile and 

 adorning the plant for some time; the more axial numerous, basal 

 ones usually fertile, smaller, more or less hidden, and born on short 

 peduncles which elongate after fertilization. Calyx forming a long 

 stalk-like tube with one narrow lobe as a lower lip, the upper broad 

 and four-toothed. Corolla with a large yellow, orange-striped 

 standard, two small wings, and a tiny, incurved, beaked keel. Sta- 

 mens ten, monadelphous, versatile; five often with fertile anthers 

 attached near their base; the alternate ones absent or short and 

 fixed at their center. P/j///monocarpous; style long, slender; ovary 

 small, at base of the long calyx tube, one celled with one to six ovules; 

 after fertilization the floral envelopes drop away, and the ovary, 

 now sharp-pointed and strengthened, is pushed by the rigid, recurv- 



