110 ENGLISH BOTANY. 
Rootstock thick, black, extending many feet down through the 
shingle, branching above, the branches mostly starting from the same 
point, slender and creeping. Stems 6 inches to 3 feet long, lying 
flat on the ground. Leaflets 1 to 2 inches long, mostly alternate, 
and diminishing in size towards the apex of the petiole, thick and 
somewhat fleshy, directed upwards, particularly in the evening; 
common petiole generally curved backwards, terminating in a very 
short tendril. Stipules very large, } to 1 inch long, with auricles 
on both sides of the base. Peduncles 1} to 8 inches long; raceme 
*tolinch long. Flowers 3 to $ inch long, purplish-crimson fading 
to blue. Style straight, ascending at an obtuse angle with the 
stigma, slightly dilated upwards and hairy. Pods reflexed, shortly 
stipitate, 14 to 2 inches long, brown when ripe, nearly straight, 
their width nearly as great as the depth between the 2 sutures. 
Seeds $ inch in diameter, dusky-brown, paler towards the hilum, 
slightly shining. Plant glabrous and glaucous. 
Sea Pea. 
French, Pois Maritime. German, Meerstrands Platterbse. 
This species of Lathyrus grows on shingly beaches, chiefly on the Eastern coast of 
England, but not very abundantly anywhere. The seeds are bitter in taste, and very 
unpalatable ; but, in the year 1555, the people in the neighbourhood of Aldborough and 
Orford, in Suffolk, were kept alive during a time of famine by eating the seeds of this 
plant, which grew abundantly on the sand-hills of the district. Its existence had not 
been noticed by the inhabitants before, and they attributed its sudden appearance to 
an interposition of Providence for their sustenance. Some, less willing to believe in 
miracles, traced the origin of the plant to the wreck of a vessel laden with peas on the 
coast during the previous year ; but, as the Sea Pea is nowhere cultivated, this seems 
unlikely. It is more probable that the plant had grown there for centuries ; but the 
seeds being nauseous in flavour, and botany not being studied in this district at this 
period, no one had recollected the circumstance, until pressed by want to seek food 
among the wild herbs of the neighbouring waste. With the necessity, the estimation 
of the plant that had relieved it ceased, and it is now as little used as many others 
which might be of equal value under similar circumstances. 
Section IV.—OROBUS. Linn. 
Petioles all bearing leaflets, but terminating in a linear or subu- 
Jate point, not a tendril. Calyx gibbous at the base on the upper 
side. 
SPECIES X—LATHYRUS MACRORRHAIZUS. Wimm. 
Pirate CCCCVI. 
L. montanus, Bernh. Gorcke Fl. v. N. & Mit-Deutschl. ed. vi. p. 112. 
Orobus tuberosus, Linn. Sm Eng, Bot. No. 1153. Koch, Syn. Fl. Germ. et Helv. 
ed, ii. p. 225. ries, Sum. Veg. Scand. p. 46. 
Rootstock creeping, stoloniferous, bearing small enlarged tubers 
or knots. Stems erect or ascending, frequently decumbent at the 
io 
