80 LEGUMINOS^. 



We now come to a very important family, the Pea and Bean 

 tribe. The British members of the group are characterised by 

 two general features a butterfly-shaped corolla (papiliona- 

 ceous), and a leguminous seed-vessel. The legume is a pod, 

 sometimes straight and sometimes curved ; it prevails in the 

 entire order. The papilionaceous corolla holds good in the 

 British species, but it is wanting in some of the foreign ones. 

 This order contains above six thousand species, most of them 

 nutritious all, according to Linnaeus, wholesome. They are 

 found in all parts of the world, with the exception of one or 

 two remote islands, and are used for food for human beings as 

 well as cattle in all countries. The timber trees Acacia, 

 Rosewood, and Logwood, belong to this family, whilst gum 

 arabic, senna, liquorice, and balsam of tolu are the produce of 

 other species. Indigo and the Locust Tree also pertain to this 

 group. The best gum arabic is the produce of an Arabian 

 species of Acacia, and Arabian physicians first discovered the 

 medicinal properties of senna. All the British species are 

 herbaceous, with the exception of the Broom and Green-weeds. 

 The leaves of this order are mostly pinnate, with a tendril or 

 an odd leaflet, seldom simple. They have stipules in pairs. 

 The flowers are handsome, often very sweet. The herbage 

 is wholesome for cattle, the seeds for man. The " husks that 

 the swine did eat " are generally considered to be those of the 

 Locust Tree, sometimes called St. John's Bread, from an idea 

 that its fruit was the locusts eaten by him ; but as locusts have 

 from time immemorial been the food of people in the East, the 

 word may fairly be taken in a literal sense. The husks are 

 still employed for feeding cattle in Palestine, and a juice is 

 expressed from them and used in preserving fruits. The leaves 

 and bark are used for tanning skins. They have ten stamens 

 joined in two bundles or brotherhoods, and one pistil. This 

 great leguminous order is divided into three groups the Lotus 

 group, the Vetch group, and the Jointed Yetch group. In the 

 first, or Lotus group, all the stamens are united at the bottom. 



