THE PEA FAMILY. 173 



stigma. Fruit almost universally a legume, subject to modifications 

 of shape and contents, but in a few cases drupaceous. The legumes 

 of the tropical species are most curiously diversified, and not a few 

 even in our own country disguise themselves ; while the seeds are 

 among the most beautiful in nature, being often of resplendent colours, 

 or prettily mottled, as in the common French and scarlet beans. The 

 leaves are extremely prone to close in the evening, a circumstance 

 helping to distinguish this family as one preeminently of compound 

 leaves, since divided leaves, however closely they resemble compound 

 ones, never in the slightest degree change their position. The 

 cohesion of the filaments, where these parts grow together, is of two 

 kinds. Either the whole ten combine, edge to edge, and form a tube, 

 which encloses the ovary, though sometimes split along the upper 

 side; or nine unite, and the tenth stands apart, as in Fig. 120. This 

 latter mode of growth is termed " diadelphous," and pervades the 

 principal part of the species of temperate latitudes. The broom, the 

 furze, and the rest-harrow may be cited as examples of the " mona- 

 delphous" or wholly combined condition. None of the native kinds 

 have the stamens free. 



Seventy-seven species grow wild in Britain, thirty-eight of them 

 occurring near Manchester, and distinguished by the characters given 

 in the analytical table below. The two species of furze, the two 

 Genistas, and the broom, are shrubby, the remainder herbaceous, and 

 often tender-stemmed. Half the number are common almost every- 

 where, and not more than half-a-dozen are unattractive. The flowers 

 of the two commonest, or the furze and the honey- clover, are un- 

 surpassed in powerful odour by those of any of our native plants. 

 The melilot is equally fragrant, smelling, as the sweet woodruff does, 

 like new-mown hay, after it has been gathered and become dry. 



PKELIMINAKY ANALYSIS. 



A. Plant more or less thorny, p. 1 74. 



B. Plant destitute of thorns. 



I. Leaves all, or nearly all, simple. 

 II. Leaves all compound. 



* Leaves with tendrils at the end. 

 •* Leaves without tendrils, p. 175. 

 + Leaves pinnate. 

 +t Leaves trifoliolate. 



J Flowers a decided yellow. 



