Magenta to Pink 



Goat's Rue; Cat-gut; Hoary Pea or Wild 

 Sweet Pea 



(Cracca Virginiand) Pea family 



(Tephrosia Virginiana of Gray) 



Flowers — In terminal cluster, each y<z in. long or over, butterfly- 

 shaped, consisting of greenish, cream-yellow standard, pur- 

 plish-rose wings, and curved keel of greenish yellow tinged 

 with rose; petals clawed; 10 stamens (9 and 1); calyx 

 5-toothed. Stem : Hoary, with white, silky hairs, rather 

 woody, 1 to 2 feet high. Leaves: Compounded of 7 to 2s 

 oblong leaflets. Root: Long, fibrous, tough. Fruit: A 

 hoary, narrow pod, 1 to 2 in. long. 



Preferred Habitat — Dry, sandy soil, edges of pine woods. 



Flowering Season — J u n e — J u ly . 



Distribution — Southern New England, westward to Minnesota, 

 south to Florida, Louisiana, and Mexico. 



Flowers far less showy and attractive than this denizen of 

 sandy waste lands, a cousin of the wisteria vine and the locust 

 tree, have been introduced to American gardens. Striking its 

 long fibrous root deep into the dry soil, the plant spreads in 

 thrifty clumps through heat and drought — and so tough are its 

 fibres they might almost be used for violin strings. As in the 

 case of the lupine, the partridge pea and certain others akin to 

 it, the leaves of the hoary pea "go to sleep" at night, but after 

 a manner of their own, i.e., by lying along the stem and turning 

 on their own bases. 



In similar situations from New York south and southwest- 

 ward, the Milk Pea {Galactia regularis or G. glabella of Gray) lies 

 prostrate along the ground, the matted, usually branched stems 

 sending up at regular intervals a raceme of rose-purple flowers in 

 July and August from the axil of the trefoliate leaf. 



Trailing Bush Clover 



(Lespede%a procumbens) Pea family 



Flowers — Purplish pink or violet, veined, the butterfly-shaped ones 

 having standard petal, wings, and keel, clustered at end of 

 peduncles ; the minute flowers lacking a corolla, nearly sessile. 

 Calyx of 5 slender, nearly equal lobes. Stems: Prostrate, 

 trailing, or sometimes ascending, woolly or downy, leafy. 



103 



