YELLOW 



PARTRIDGE-PEA. 



Cassia Chamcecrista. Pulse Family. 



Stems. Spreading ; eight inches to a foot long. Leaves. Divided into 

 from ten to fifteen pairs of narrow delicate leaflets, which close at night 

 and are somewhat sensitive to the touch. Flowers. Yellow; rather large 

 and showy; on slender stalks beneath the spreading leaves ; not papiliona- 

 ceous. Calyx. Of five sepals. Corolla. Of five rounded, spreading, 

 somewhat unequal petals, two or three of which are usually spotted at the 

 base with red or purple. Stamens. Ten; unequal; dissimilar. Pistil. 

 One, with a slender style. Pod. Flat. 



The partridge-pea is closely related to the wild senna, and a 

 pretty, delicate plant it is, with graceful foliage, and flowers in 

 late summer which surprise us with their size, abounding in 

 gravelly, sandy places where little else will flourish, brightening 

 the railway embankments and the road's edge. It is at home all 

 over the country south of Massachusetts and east of the Rocky 

 Mountains, but it grows with a greater vigor and luxuriance in 

 the South than elsewhere. The leaves can hardly be called sen- 

 sitive to the touch, yet when a branch is snapped from the par- 

 ent stem, or is much handled, the delicate leaflets will droop and 

 fold, displaying their curious mechanism. 



WILD SENNA. 



Cassia Marilandica. Pulse Family. 



Stem. Three or four feet high. Leaves. Divided into from six to nir.e 

 pairs of narrowly oblong leaflets. Flowers. Yellow ; in short clusters from 

 the axils of the leaves. Calyx. Of five sepals. Corolla. Of five slightly 

 unequal, spreading petals ; usually somewhat spotted with reddish brown. 

 Stamens. Five to ten ; unequal ; some of them often imperfect. Pistil. 

 One. Pod. Long and narrow, slightly curved, flat. 



This tall, striking plant, with clusters of yellow flowers which 

 appear in midsummer, grows abundantly along many of the New 

 England roadsides, and also far south and west, thriving best in 

 sandy soil. Although a member of the Pulse family its blossoms 

 are not papilionaceous. 



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