32 FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS. 



pastures and hedgerows being the spots where it more 

 especially flourishes. The stipules, the leaf-like bodies at 

 the base of the leaf, the point at which it springs from 

 the stem, are arrow-headed in form, the lower segments of 

 each pair being often curiously crossed and locked together. 

 From these stipules rise branched tendrils, each tendril 

 before it branches throwing off a pair of very long and 

 narrow leaflets. The pods, or legumes, that succeed the 

 blossoms are green in colour, and each contains several 

 seeds. 



The broad-leaved everlasting pea, a well-known fa- 

 vourite in cottage gardens, belongs to the same genus, 

 and so too does the narrow-leaved. The first of these, 

 though at times met with apparently wild, has no real 

 claim to a place in our indigenous flora, but the second, 

 the Lathyrus sylvestris, is a true native. 



