LEGUMINOSAE— LATHYRUS 



573 



Attempts to isolate the poison have not succeeded. Teilleux found an acid that induced 

 typical effects upon rabbits. Bourlier found an active alkaloid in the alcohol-ether ex- 

 tract of the seeds, and poisoned birds with it. Astier isolated a volatile alkaloid by the 

 Stas method, and he thus explains the fact that long-continued heating at a high tem- 

 perature renders the seeds inert. 



20. Cicer h. Chick pea 



Calyx tube oblique or gibbous posteriorly; lobes nearly equal or the two 

 upper somewhat shorter, conniving; standard ovate or nearly orbicular, nar- 

 rowed into a broad claw; wings obliquely obovate, free; keel somewhat broader, 

 incurved, dilated; anthers uniform; ovary sessile 2-8 ovuled; style filiform, in- 

 curved or bent, beardless ; stigmas terminal, legume sessile, ovoid or oblong, 

 turgid, 2-valved; seeds sub-globose or irregularly obovoid; funiculus scarcely 

 dilated, hilum small; cotyledons thick; radicle short, slightly incurved or nearly 

 straight. 



Cicer arietintim L. Chick pea 



Annual herbs, or perennial often glandular-pubescent; leaves pinnate, petiole 

 terminating in a small tuft of spinescent hairs or in an odd leaflet; leaflets 

 dentate or incised without stipels; stipules foliaceous oblique, often dentate or 

 incised; flowers white, blue or violet; solitary pedunculate, or few pedicelled; 

 bracts small; bractlets 0. About 14 species, especially in the eastern Mediter- 

 ranean and in Central Asia — extending westward. 



Distribut'on. Cultivated in the Rocky Mountains and in the Southwest. 

 Also extensively in Southern Europe and tropical Asia. Considered an excellent 

 food plant. 



Fig. 315. Chick pea {Cicer arietinum). 

 (After Faguet). 



