THE PEA FAMILY. 



171 



or at least among the wild ones. The only garden species of ill-fame, 

 in this respect, that is at aU common, is the Laburnum, the seeds of 

 which are poisonous. 



Fig. 121. 



Fig. 123. 



The estimated number of Fahacece is now not far short of seven 

 thousand, the whole of them being known by the presence of one or 

 other of two characters, namely, a butterfly-shaped flower, as in Fig. 

 117, or a leguminous or pea-like fruit, as in Fig. 118, By far the 



Fig. 124. 



largest portion have these two characters combined. It is only in 

 some tropical and extra-European species that we find a deviation 

 from either of them, and those in which the fruit is the abnormal part 



