296 



Minnesota Plant Life. 



developed from a single carpel, with from one to many seed- 

 rtidiments produced in a row along one side, in the interior. 

 The forms of ])ods arc very various. Sometimes they are shai)ed 

 quite like the familiar pea-pods or bean-pods. Again they are 

 broken up into joints, each joint containing a single seed. Often 

 the pods are coiled like snail shells. Some varieties have small 

 pods, reminding one, in their appearance, of the nutlets of the 

 strawberry, but differing in their almost universal habit of 

 opening down both edges to release the seed. About 7,000 

 species are included in the 

 pulse family, making it al- 

 most three times as large as 

 the rose family. The lower 

 division of pulses, in which 

 the flowers are not of the 

 true butterfly shape, though 

 sometimes approaching it, is 

 represented in Minnesota by 

 two trees — the redbud and 

 the Kentucky coffee-tree — 

 and four herbs, including 

 three sennas and a desman- 

 thus. 



Redbud trees. The red- 

 bud, or Judas-tree, is re- 

 ported as occurring in the 

 extreme southern portion of 



the state, but the only Speci- ^"'"- ^^^- I-^'-nlni^l^^y coffee-tree. After Hrittoii and 

 , _ , ' , Brown. 



mens that I know of are 



cultivated, and it is prol)al)lv not native to Minnesota. The 

 flowers have the look of the Ijuiterflx- llowers of the higher 

 genera, but the broad petal, known as tlic standartl, is inclosed 

 by the wings in the bud. In the true butterflv flowers the 

 reverse condition obtains. 'IMie leaxes of the redbud are heart- 

 shaped and the llowers are pink and borne in short lateral clus- 

 ters. The fruit matures into a flat, oblong jiod which opens 

 like the pod of a locust. The wood is hea\y. coarse-grained, 

 dark brown or red, with lighter colored sap-wood. 



