From Blue to Purple 



Stamens lo (9 and i); style curved, flattened, bearded on 

 inner side. Stem : i to 2 (t. long, stout, reclining, spreading, 

 leafy. Leaves ■■ Compounded of 3 to 6 pairs of oblong leaflets 

 somewhat larger than halbert-shaped stipules at base of leaf; 

 branched tendrils at end of it. Fruit: A flat, 2-valved, veiny 

 pod, continuous between the seeds. 



Preferred Habitat — Beaches of Atlantic and Pacific oceans, also of 

 Great Lakes. 



Flowering Season — May — August. Sometimes blooming again in 

 autumn. 



Distribution — New Jersey to Arctic Circle ; also Northern Europe 

 and Asia. 



Sturdy clumps of the beach pea, growing beyond reach of 

 the tide in the dunes and sandy wastelands back of the beach, 

 afford the bee the last restaurant where he may regale himself 

 without fear of drowning. From some members of the pea fam- 

 ily, as from the wild lupine, for example, his weight, as he moves 

 about, actually pumps the pollen that has fallen into the forward 

 part of the blossom's keel onto his body, that he may transfer it 

 to another flower, in some other members his weight so de- 

 presses the keel that the stamens are forced out to dust him over, 

 the flower resuming its original position to protect its nectar and 

 the remaining pollen just as soon as the pressure is removed. 

 Other peas, again, burst at his pressure, and discharge their pollen 

 on him. Now, in the beach pea, and similarly in the vetches, 

 the style is hairy on its inner side, to brush out the pollen on the 

 visitor who sets the automatic sweeper in motion as he alights 

 and moves about. So perfectly have many members of this in- 

 teresting family adapted their structure to the requirements of 

 insects, and so implicitly do they rely on their automatic mechan- 

 ism, that they have actually lost the power to fertilize themselves. 



In moist or wet ground throughout a northern range from 

 ocean to ocean, the Marsh Vetchling {Lathvnis palustris) bears 

 its purple, butterfly-shaped flowers, that are the merest trifle 

 over half the size of those of the beach pea. From two to six of 

 these little blossoms are alternately set along the end of the stalk. 

 The leaflets, which are narrowly oblong, and acute at the apex, 

 stand up opposite each other in pairs (from two to four) along 

 the main leafstalk, that splits at the end to form hooked tendrils. 



Butterfly or Blue Pea 



{Cliioria Mariana) Pea family 



Flowers — Bright lavender blue, showy, about 2 in. long: from i 

 to 3 borne on a short peduncle. Calyx tubular, s-toolhed; 



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