662 Rural School Leaflet. 



How many stamens? How are they arranged? Draw them. 

 Split a pea or bean pod. How does it open? 



Make a list of all the legumes that you find growing in the neighbor- 

 hood and another list of all that are planted by farmers. 

 The following points will be discovered : 



1. The leaves are always alternate, i. e. no two leaves are at the same 

 level. 



2. The leaves are compound (there are a few exceptions). The 

 leaflets are arranged along a midrib, as in the pea, vetch, peanut and 

 locust ; or they may be palmately compounded with the leaflets coming out 

 like the fingers from the palm, as clover, alfalfa. See Fig. 7. 



3. Many of the legimies can be recognized by the shape of the blossom. 

 They are sometimes named the Papillionace?e family of plants, the word 

 meaning "butterfly-like." Pea blossoms have this butterfly-like appear- 

 ance. See Fig. 7. The stamens are often surrounded by a more or less 

 boat-shaped part of the corolla. This part is called the keel because of 

 its similarity to a boat. Many of the legumes can be told by this boat- 

 shaped appearance. When examining clover, remember that the head is 

 made of many separate blossoms. 



4. There are usually ten stamens, nine of which are united around 

 the pistil and one of which is commonly independent. 



5. The pods split along both sides into two parts. The name "legume" 

 refers to this characteristic. The word is used to denote a simple dry 

 seed-pod that splits along both sides, with the seeds on one edge of it. 

 This characteristic is more difficult to distinguish in very small seed pods, 

 as those of clover. The word "legume" is now commonly used, however, 

 to mean a plant that bears a legume. 



If you find any legume whose common name you dp not know, send 

 a specimen with blossoms and seed pods, and we will give the name. 



Words to be spelled and defined. 



Legume or leguminous plant, a member of the pea or clover family. 

 Compond leaf, a leaf that is divi^led into distinct blades or leaflets, as 



a clover leaf. 

 Simple leaf, a leaf that is all in one piece, as a maple leaf. 

 Calyx, the outer part of the flower, usually green. 

 Sepal, one division of the calyx 



Corolla, the inner circle of flower leaves, usually not green. 

 Petal, one division of the corolla. 

 Pisti', the central organ of the flower, in the base of which the seeds 



develop. 

 Stamen, the organ of a flower that bears the pollen. 

 Alfalfa, a clover-like perennial legume. 



