LEGUMINOS.^. (pea FAMILY.) 



38a 



I ig. A. Un thf left is JIosacHa sub' 

 2>i)inata, ehowing a full grown pf>cl 

 and a flower as seen from above. On 

 the right is a pod and flowers oi 

 Hosacl-ia Pursliiana. At a is a single 

 flower with its bract as seen from the 

 front. The lower leaves and bracts 

 are larger. 



Fig. B. A head of Trifolium fuca- 

 A tiim, with all but three of the flowers 



removed, showing the common receptacle and the involucre. 



Fig. C. An axillary spike of Astragalus didymocarpus, with ripo fruit. Below Ik 

 one of the pods magnified. 



Thi.s order is remarkable for the number of useful and beautiful plants 

 which belong to it. Pease, beans, lentils, peanuts, clover, alfalfa, etc., 

 furnish food for man and domestic animals. Tropical plants of tlii.s 

 order supply, among others, the following articles of commerce: Gum 

 arable, gum Senegal, gum copal, dragon's-blood, indigo, logwood, brazil- 

 wood, rosewood, tamarind. Many species have medical value, as senna, 

 catchu, copaiba, etc. 



There are over 6,000 si^ecies of leguminous plants, mostly tropical. 

 About 350 species are natives of the United States, more than lialf of 

 which are found in California. Only 4 or 5 species are common to this 

 coast and the Atlantic States, and these have forms peculiar to each 

 coast. Our 180 species are grouped under 14 genera, while the I.IO species 

 of the East {i e., the Mississippi States and eastward to the Atlantic), 

 represent 50 genera. There are about 40 species of lupine, and the same 

 number belonging to the genus Astragalus, growing witliin the limits ot 

 this State. Only two kinds of the former and 4 of the latter grow east 

 of the MississiDDi. The latter is the largest American ccnus of the 



