LIFE HISTORIES OF FAMILIAR PLANTS 



stalks with three tiny leaflets, similar in shape to 

 those of the laburnum. Amongst the upper parts 

 of the branches, however, you will frequently find 

 that the leaves are stalkless and composed of only 

 one leaflet. To seek for leaves on the gorse is a 

 hopeless task, for its leaves, and also its branches, 

 have all been converted into sharp thorns. That 

 the gorse once had trifoliolate leaves something 

 like those of the laburnum, or the lower stalked 

 ones of the broom, I will endeavour to make clear 

 presently. 



Now, these three plants all belong to one very 

 large family ; a family which stands next in im- 

 portance in the vegetable world to that dominant 

 group of Composites that includes the wild 

 camomile, which I have considered in Chapter I. 

 Their flowers at once denote that they are 

 individuals of the great Pea-flower family, which 

 includes the favourite sweet peas of the garden, 

 the cultivated peas and beans, the wild peas, the 

 vetches, and the clovers. The leaves of peas 

 and wild vetches are composed of a number of 

 separate leaflets arranged in pinnate fashion along 

 the stalk. 



Indeed, if you take a leaf from the laburnum 

 and look at the piece of bare stalk that bears the 

 three leaflets at its apex, you can readily under- 

 stand that by placing a few similar opposite leaflets 

 along the stalk you at once produce the pinnate 

 leaf so characteristic of the Pea-flower family. The 

 same thing would apply equally well to the trefoil 

 leaves of clover. Of course, in the peas and 



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