264 Blue to Purple Flowers 



ALPINE LUPIN 



Lupinus subalpimis. Pulse Family 



Stems: simple, leafy. Leaves: palmately divided, leaflets spatulate- 

 oblanceolate, obtuse, villous beneath, glabrous above. Flowers: in a 

 terminal raceme, keel glabrous. Fruit: pod linear-oblong, obliquely 

 pointed, seven to nine seeded. 



The showy blue blossoms of the Alpine Lupin, which are 

 found at high altitudes, grow in many-flowered terminal 

 racemes borne on a stoutish stalk. The individual flower- 

 stalks are slender, the leaflets are broad at the base and 

 somewhat rounded at the top. 



ASCENDING MILK VETCH 



Astragalus adsurgens. Pea Family 



Stems: rather stout, ascending or decumbent. Leaves: odd-pinnate; 

 leaflets oval to linear-oblong, obtuse, fifteen to twenty-five, peduncles 

 exceeding the leaves. Flowers: erect, in short dense spikes; tube of 

 the calyx long-campanulate, twice as long as the setaceous teeth, sub- 

 villous with partly black hairs; petals clawed; standard erect, ovate; 

 wings oblong; keel obtuse. Fruit: pods erect, sessile, coriaceous. 



This is a common species of purple Vetch in the moun- 

 tain regions. It has much foliage, composed of from fif- 

 teen to twenty-five tiny oblong leaflets borne on each of the 

 leaf-stalks, w^hich branch from the main stems. The flow- 

 ers grow in dense roundish heads, and the little leaflets are 

 rounded and entire at the apex. 



Each individual flower, like many of those of the Pea 

 Family, is composed of five irregular petals, the large upper 

 one, called the standard, being turned backwards when in 

 full bloom, and the two side ones forming wings, while the 

 two lower ones are united to form a kind of pouch, called 

 the keel, which encloses the stamens and style. 



The traveller will note that an easy way to distinguish 



