88 LEGUMINOS^E. (PULSE FAMILY.) 



13. P. paiicifdlia, Willd. Perennial,- flowering stems short (3' -4 

 high), and leafy chiefly at the summit, rising from long and slender prostrate 01 

 subterranean shoots, which also bear concealed fertile flowers ; lower leavea 

 small and scale-like, scattered ; the upper leaves ovate, petioled, crowded; flower* 

 1-3, large, peduncled; wings obovate, rather shorter than the conspicuously 

 fringe-crested keel ; stamens 6; caruncle of 2 - 3 awl-shaped lobes longer than 

 the seed. Woods in light soil; not rare northward, extending southward 

 along the Alleghanies. May. A delicate plant, with large and very hand- 

 some flowers, f long, rose-purple, or rarely pure white. Sometimes called 

 Flowering Wintergreen, but more appropriately FRINGED POLYGALA. 



ORDER 38. LEGUMINOS^E. (PULSE FAMILY.) 



Plants with papilionaceous or sometimes regular flowers, 10 (rarely 5, and 

 sometimes many) monadelplious, diadelphous, or rarely distinct stamens, and 

 a single simple free pistil, becoming a legume in fruit. Seeds without 

 albumen. Leaves alternate, with stipules, usually compound. One of the 

 sepals inferior (i. e. next the bract) ; one of the petals superior (i. e 

 next the axis of the inflorescence). A very large order (nearly free from 

 noxious qualities), of which the principal representatives in this and 

 other northern temperate regions belong to the first of the three sub- 

 orders it comprises. 



SUBORDER I. PAPILIONACE^E. THE PROPER PULSE FAMILY. 



Calyx of 5 sepals, more or less united, often unequally so. Corolla pe- 

 rigynous (inserted into the base of the calyx), of 5 irregular petals (or very 

 rarely fewer), imbricated in the bud, more or less distinctly papilionaceous, 

 i. e. with the upper or odd petal, called the vexillum or standard, larger 

 than the others and enclosing them in the bud, usually turned backward or 

 spreading ; the two lateral ones, called the wings, oblique and exterior to 

 the two lower petals, which last are connive nt and commonly more or less 

 coherent by their anterior edges, forming a body named the carina or keel, 

 from its resemblance to the keel or prow of a boat, and which usually en- 

 closes the stamens and pistil. Stamens 10, very rarely 5, inserted with the 

 corolla, monadelphous, diadelphous (mostly with 9 united in one set in a 

 tube which is cleft on the upper .side, i. e. next the standard, and the tenth 

 or upper one separate), or occasionally distinct. Ovary 1-celled, sometimes 

 2-celled by an infolding of one of the sutures, or transversely many-celled 

 by cross-division into joints: style simple : ovules amphitropous, very rare- 

 ly anatropous. Cotyledons large, thick or thickisli : radicle almost always 

 incurved. Leaves simple or simply compound, the earliest ones in germi- 

 nation usually opposite, the rest alternate : leaflets almost always quite en- 

 tire. Flowers perfect, solitary and axillary, or in spikes, racemes, or pan- 

 icles. 



