TEPHROSIA VIRGINIANA. 



VIRGINIAN GOAT'S-RUE; HOARY PEA. 



NATURAL ORDER, LEGUMINOS^. 



Tephrosia Virginiana, Persoon. — Erect, villous; leaflets numerous, oblong, mucronate ; 

 raceme terminal, subsessile among the leaves ; legume falcate, villous ; perennial ; plant 

 I to 2 feet high; stem simple, very leafy ; leaflets 15 to 27, 10 to 13 lines by 2 to 3 lines, 

 straight-veined, odd one oblong-obcordate ; petiolules one line long; stipules subulate, 

 deciduous; flowers as large as those of the locust, in a short, crowded cluster; calyx very 

 ^rillous; banner white; keel rose-colored; wings red. (Wood's Class-Book of Botany. 

 See also Gray's Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States, Chapman's Flora of 

 the Southern United States, and Torrey & Gray's Flora of the United States.) 



O those who Hve in the vicinity of New York or Phila- 

 delphia, New Jersey is a favorite botanical hunting- 

 ground. Our plant may be found there in some abundance in 

 the drier localities during June and July, and it is sure to excite 

 admiration. The color of the flower is not brilliant, but it is 

 sufficient to attract attention, and the neatness of its structure, 

 with the somewhat graceful habit of the foliage, afford pleasure 

 to those who are artistically inclined. The impression the plant 

 gives is one of novelty, for it has more of the character of plants 

 from the Cape of Good Hope, or from Australia, as we see them 

 in green-houses, or judge of them from herbarium specimens, 

 than of those which we generally see in the Atlantic United 

 States. Indeed, species of Tcphrosia abound in Southern Africa 

 and the East Indies ; and speaking of plants as if they had all 

 wandered from a central point, we might say that our Tephrosias 

 had really wandered far away from their original home. We 

 have but a few species in the United States, but there are some 

 in the West Indies and in Mexico, and in the southern part of 

 the American continent. It is not by any means in New Jersey 



