Chapter IV. 



PEAFLOWERS. 



This is a large and very natural family. In order to 

 illustrate its features we will examine one of our com- 

 monest bush flowers, Prickly Beauty. 



This flower is fortunate in having an original popular 

 name all to itself. For once, the people who gave names 

 in days that were earlier did not attach to this plant an 

 old and quite inappropriate name belonging to a shrub 

 at the other side of the world. Most people at all familiar 

 with the bush know Prickly Beauty, know it as a small 

 shrub, with small sharply-pointed leaves that are concave 

 on the upper surface. The flowers are few in the upper 

 axils, and are of the form so familiar to us all in the Pea- 

 flower. For purposes of general information, any other of 

 our native Peaflowers will do to illustrate, but as this 

 family is very large and the members differ only on small 

 differences, it has been thought necessary to divide them 

 up into genera, marked very often by trivial difference, 

 so in describing this flower it will be advisable to take note 

 of these arbitrary marks, wherefore it is best to follow 

 this article with a specimen of the true Beauty. 



As already stated, the flowers are few, and are placed 

 singly in some of the leaf axils- They are not massed 

 together at the ends of the branches as they are in many 

 closely-allied shrubs. Each flower is on a distinct stalk. 

 The calyx is made up of five sepals, but, unlike those of 

 the Heath family, which are all separate from one another, 

 here they are more or less united, so that the calyx is in 

 the form of a broad tube, with five short lobes, and of 

 these the two upper lobes are rather longer and more united 

 than the lower three. Though apparently trivial, this is 

 an important matter to whoever wishes to understand the 

 classification of Peaflowers. 



The corolla is made up of five petals, which are very 

 unequal in size. The upper one has a very narrow base, 

 above which it broadly expands into a conspicuous disc, 

 slightly notched on the upper margin; it is placed outside 

 the other petals, and encloses them in the bud. It has 

 received the name of the standard. Next are two small 

 oblong petals, placed one on each side; they are called 

 the wings. The next pair are placed below, and are more 



