158 CLASS DIADELPHIA, 



the mellowness and flavor of ordinary potatoes ; and, 

 as the roots of the Lathyrus tuber osus are eaten in 

 Holland, so these, very similar tubers, made also an 

 ordinary part of the vegetable food of the aborigines. 

 The leaves are pinnated, each consisting of 5 or 7 

 broadish leaflets, from the axils of which, about July 

 and August, come out abundance of short and dense 

 clusters or racemes of purplish brown, slightly fra- 

 grant flowers. The calyx is partly 2-lipped, truncated, 

 and 1 -toothed; the keel falcate, reflecting back and 

 impressing the summit of the vexillum. The germ 

 is sheathed at its base ; the legume coriaceous and 

 many-seeded. 



The Colutea, or Bladder Senna, is a beautiful genus 

 of exotic shrubs, well known by their inflated, thin, 

 bladder-like, many-seeded legumes ; and having yel- 

 low or reddish flowers. 



The genus Robinia, or Locust-tree, is one of the 

 prevalent ornaments of our forests and mountain tops, 

 in the milder latitudes ; they are also as commonly 

 cultivated, more particularly the R. Pseudacacia, or 

 common Locust-tree, so valuable for its timber. They 

 have all pinnated leaves, and pendulous racemes of 

 beautiful red, or white, and sometimes fragrant flowers. 

 These consist of a campanulate, 4-cleft calyx, with 

 its upper segment bifid. The vexillum is roundish, 

 expanded, and reflexed ; the legume flat and long, 

 containing many small, compressed seeds. 



In Medicago, of which Lucerne is a species, the 

 keel of the corolla is bent from the vexillum ; and 

 the legume is compressed and spiral, so as to resem- 

 ble the shell of a snail. 



To this family also belongs the Indigo-plant (lndi- 

 gofera), having falcated, unopening, angular, small 

 legumes; and also the Liquorice (Glicyrrhiza), 

 whose root is employed in commerce and medicine. 



