3466 



VICIA 



mucronate: fls. small, red or nearly scarlet and purple- 

 striped, in a compact raceme or spike. Algeria. 

 Adapted only to the Pacific and Gulf states. Usually 

 of poor seed habits, but quite drought-resistant from 

 spring sowings. 



FF. Color of fls. purplish or violet. 



13. Cracca, Linn. Perennial, usually pubescent: Ifts. 

 9-12 pairs, thin, linear to oblong, mucronate: fls. pur- 

 plish, about J^in. long, in a rather dense raceme. 

 Across the continent and south to Ky.; also in Eu. and 

 Asia. R.F.G. 22:230. B.B. 2:2613. Var. Gerardii, 

 Gaud. (V. Gerardii, All.). Described as a hardy annual: 

 pubescent: Ifts. numerous, narrow-oblong, very obtuse 

 but with a short mucro.: fls. violet, small, in short 

 racemes. S. Eu. R.F.G. 22:233. Offered by seedsmen 

 as a fl.-garden subject. 



EE. Limb of banner not over half as long as its claw. 



F. Pod glabrous. 



G. Plant with thick, shaggy pubescence: fls. up to 1 in. 

 long. 



14. villdsa, Roth. HAIRY, SAND or RUSSIAN VETCH. 

 Fig. 3930. Annual or biennial (sometimes perennial?), 

 enduring the winters in the N., villous-pubescent : Ifts. 

 5-10 pair's, elliptic-oblong, rounded at the tip but 

 usually ending in a very minute point: fls. violet-blue, 

 in long 1-sided axillary about 30-fld. racemes. Eu., 

 Asia. R.F.G. 22:234. Now considerably used as a 

 cover-crop. More hardy than V. saliva but the pods 

 shatter more easily and the seeds are smaller. In N. 

 Italy it can be cut early enough to produce a crop of 

 millet the same season. 



GG. Plant with short oppressed pubescence: fls. only up 

 to Ygin. long. 



15. dasycarpa, Ten. Annual or sometimes perennial, 

 slightly pubescent: st. slender, angled, climbing to 

 prostrate: Ivs. nearly sessile; Ifts. about 10 pairs, 

 oblong-ovate to linear or lanceolate: infl. short-pedi- 

 celled: fls. few to many, whitish below, blue-violet 

 above, becoming blue with age: pod K-1J4 in. long, 

 %in. broad; seeds rather large, purplish brown. Eu. 

 R.F.G. 22:235. As hardy as V. villosa and matures 

 earlier than V. saliva. Produces good seed crops. 

 Naturalized in W. Ore. 



FF. Pod pubescent: plant with thick shaggy pubescence: 

 fls. whitish below, purplish above. 



16. atropurpftrea, Desf. PURPLE VETCH. Annual, 

 resembling V. villosa in habit, sometimes with soft 

 whitish pubescence: st. 8-30 in. long, angular, prostrate 

 or climbing: Ivs. with 5^8 pairs of Ifts. with branched 

 tendrils; Ifts. oblong-linear to almost linear, apex 

 pointed: infl. 2-12-fld.: fls. about %in. long; corolla 

 whitish below, purplish above: pod broadly linear to 

 rhombic-linear, 1-1 J^ in. long, K-Km. broad, pubes- 

 cent; seeds somewhat roundish, somewhat compressed, 

 black. S. Eu. R.F.G. 22:239. B.R. 871. Of good 

 seed habits. Best adapted to the Pacific and Gulf 

 coasts and produces excellent yields from spring plant- 

 ings in semi-arid regions. 



cc. Fls. y$in. long or less: infl. 2-4-few-fld.: plants 

 annual. 



17. Ervflia, Willd. (Srvum Ervilia, Linn.). BITTER 

 VETCH. Annual, pubescent: st. erect, angular: Ivs. 

 with 8-12 pairs of Ifts. without tendrils; Ifts. oblong- 

 linear to linear: infl. 2-4-fld.; corolla rose-colored, 

 veined: pod broadly linear, smooth, yellowish; seed 

 smooth, reddish brown. Eu. R.F.G. 22:261. Ex- 

 tensively grown in Asiatic Turkey and seed shipped 

 m large quantities to England and other countries for 

 stock feed, especially sheep. Yields about 30 Ibs. of 

 seed to the acre. Plants not readily eaten by live- 

 stock but it has been found to be an excellent winter 

 green-manure crop in Calif. p ^ R ICKER 



VICTORIA 



VICTORIA (in honor of Queen Victoria). Nym- 

 phseacese. ROYAL WATER-LILY. The great water-lily of 

 the Amazon, sometimes grown in large aquaria. 



This remarkable aquatic genus may be recognized 

 by its huge round floating Ivs. often 6 ft. or more in 

 diam., with the margin turned up at right angles to 

 the water surface to a height of 3-8 in., making a basin- 

 like object. Fls. (12-18 in. across) nocturnal, opening 

 on two successive days about 5 P.M. and remaining 

 open until the middle of the following morning; the 

 first evening the inner floral Ivs. remain loosely closed 

 over the stigma, the fl. is creamy white, and exhales a 

 delicious fragrance somewhat like pineapple; the second 

 evening the floral Ivs. spread wide open, and the color 

 changes to pink or red; ovary inferior, densely prickly, 

 and surmounted by a short broad tube, on the sides 

 and summit of which the floral Ivs. are situated; sepals 

 4; petals 50-70, obtuse, oblong-ovate to sublinear, 

 rather thin and delicate in texture; staminodia about 

 20; stamens 150-200, linear-lanceolate; paracarpels 

 about 25, forming a ring of thick fleshy bodies between 

 the stamens and the styles; carpels 30-40; stigma form- 

 ing a broad basin-like depression, 2-2 1/2 in- wide, in 

 the midst of the fl., with a central conical continuation 

 of the floral axis, the basin filled with fluid on the first 

 evening of opening; carpellary styles broad and fleshy 

 in the lower part, produced upward to a fleshy subu- 

 late incurved process about Hin. long: in fr. all of the 

 floral Ivs. have decayed away, leaving the basal tube 

 of the torus at the top of a great prickly berry, half the 

 size of one's head; seeds greenish or brownish black, 

 about the size of a pea. The genus is represented by 

 2 well-defined species, inhabiting still waters of S. 

 Amer. from British Guiana to Argentina. 



In its native haunts victoria grows in 4 to 6 feet of 

 water, in great patches miles in extent, and is peren- 

 nial. The tuberous rhizome stands erect in the mud, 

 where it is anchored by innumerable spongy roots 

 which spring from the bases of the leaves in groups 

 of ten to thirty or forty. The tuber may be as much as 

 6 inches in diameter and 2 feet long. It decays below 

 as it grows above. The leaves are arranged in 7 to 18 

 order, the flowers being extra-axillary. Each leaf after 

 the first seedling leaf has a broadly ovate fused pair of 

 stipules, these organs serving to protect the apex of the 

 stem. The petioles and peduncles are terete, 1 to 2 

 inches in diameter, covered with stout fleshy prickles, 

 and traversed internally by four large, and a number of 

 smaller air-canals. The petioles attain to a length much 

 greater than the depth of the water, so that the leaves 

 can adjust themselves to changes of the water-level, 

 though Banks states that they may be completely 

 submerged in times of flood. The gigantic leaves are 

 covered beneath with a close network of prickly veins, 

 the larger of which project an inch or more from the 

 leaf-surface; the tissues are full of air-spaces and -canals, 

 thus buoying up the mass of cellular matter. Besides 

 many stomata on the upper surface of the leaf, which 

 open into the air-chambers of the mesophyll, there are 

 countless tiny depressions, in each of which one can see 

 with a hand-lens that the leaf is perforated with a 

 fine hole; these holes were called by Planchon "sto- 

 matodes" (F.S. 6 : 249) . He considered them to be useful 

 as air-holes to let out gases which, rising from the 

 water or mud, might be caught in the deep meshes of 

 the netted veins on the under side of the leaf. It is also 

 to be noted that, in spite of the cup-like form of the 

 leaves, water from rain or other sources does not 

 remain on the surface; it doubtless runs down at once 

 through the tiny perforations. This would be an indis- 

 pensable protection against fungi and algaj, and for the 

 function of assimilation. 



A single leaf, by its buoyancy, may sustain a weight 

 of 150 or 200 pounds. Gurney at Tower Grove Park, 

 St. Louis, covers the leaf with a large round quilted 

 pad, then lays on an equally large frame of thin wooden 



