L A T 



L A T 



The seeds should be sown in pots of light 

 moukl in the early spring, plunging them in a 

 bark hat-bed. When the plants have attained 

 some inches growth, they should be removed 

 into separate pots of a small size, and be re- 

 plunged in the bark-bed, due shade and air being 

 given. The plants should afterwards, when 

 they have acquired strength, be removed into an 

 airy glass-case, or dry stove, where they may 

 have a large share of air in warm weather, but be 

 protected from the cold. This is necessary for 

 the young plants, which should not the first 

 year be exposed to the open air, but after- 

 wards they may be placed abroad in the warm- 

 est part of summer, and in winter be placed 

 upon stands in the dry stove, where they will 

 continue long in flower, and many of the 

 sorts ripen their seeds. In winter they should 

 be sparingly watered, as much moisture rots their 

 roots. 



Tlic cuttings should be planted in pots in the 

 spring and siunnier months, as in .luly, and be 

 plunsred in a moderate hot-bed, due shade be- 

 ing given. 



They soon take root, and should afterwards 

 be removed into separate pots filled with light 

 earth, and managed in the same manner as those 

 raised from seed. 



Thev aflbrd ornament and variety among col- 

 lections of stove and green-house plants. 

 LARCH TREE. See Pjnus. 

 LARKSPUR. See Delphinium. 

 LATHYRUS, a genus containing plants of 

 the herbaceous climbing flowery kinds. 



It belongs to the class and order Diadelphia 

 Decatidria, and ranks in the natural order of 

 PapiUonacecB or Leguminosce. 



The characters are: that the calyx is a one- 

 leafed perianihium, half five-cleft, bell-shaped: 

 divisions lanceolate, sharp : the two upper ones 

 shorter; the lowest longer: the corollapapliiona- 

 ceous: standard obcordate, very large, reflex on 

 the sides and tip : wings oblong, lunulate, short, 

 obtuse: keel half-orbiculate, size of the wings, 

 and wider than the wings, gaping inwards in the 

 middle : the stamina have diadelphous filaments, 

 ^single and nine-cleft) rising upwards : anthers 

 roundish : the pistilhim is a compressed germ, 

 oblong, linear: style erected upwards, flat, wider 

 above, with sharp tip : stigma, from the middle 

 T)f the style to the tip villose in front : the peri- 

 carpium is a legume, very long, cylindric or com- 

 i-.essed, acuminate, one-celled, bivalve: the seeds 

 several, cylindric, globose, orbut little cornered. 



The species cultivated arc: 1. L. odoratus, 

 Sweet Lathyriis, or Pea; 2. L. Tingitania, 

 Tangier Lathyriis, or Pea; 3. L. lulifolms, 

 Brt.ad-liaved Lathyrus, or Everlasting Pea. 



Several other species may be cultivatd whero 

 variety is wanted. 



The first is an annual plant, which rises from 

 three to four feet high by means of its long 

 claspers or tendrils : the flower- stalks come out 

 at the joints, are about six inches long, and sus- 

 tain two lariie flowers, which have a strong 

 odour, and are succeeded by oblong han\ pods, 

 having four or five roundish seeds m each. It 

 is a native of Sicily. 



There are several varieties ; as the purple- 

 flowered, the white-flowered, the variegated or 

 painted lady, sweet-scented, and the scarlet. 



'I'he second species has the stem four or five 

 feet high: the lea. lets veined: the peduncles 

 short, sustaining two large flowers with purple 

 standards, the wings and keel bright red : 

 the legumes long, jointed, containing several 

 seeds. 



Martyn observes, the whole plant is very 

 smooth : the stem branched, rimning out on 

 each side into a slender sharp wing : the petioles 

 angular, ending in bifid, trifid or simple icndrils : 

 the stipules lanceolate, acim:inalc, produced 

 downwards into an earlct, similar bat much 

 smaller: the peduncles sometimes one-flowered. 

 It is a native of Barbary, flowering in June and 

 July ; and although it has not the agreeable 

 scent, or variety of colours, or continuance iii 

 blow of the Sweet Pea, it is usually sown ia 

 gardens with other annual seeds. 



The third has a perennial root : the stalks se- 

 veral, thick, climbing by means of tendrils to 

 the height of six or eight feet, or even higher 

 in woods : these die t;) the ground in autunm, 

 and new ones rise in the spring from the 

 same root: the leaves stiff, marked with three 

 or five strong ribs, rolled in at the edge, blunt 

 at the end, but terminating in a little point or 

 bristle ; they are always in pairs, and on a wing- 

 ed petiole; at the base of this are large stipules, 

 shaped somewhat like the head of a halbcrt : the 

 tendrils multifid or branched : the peduncles, 

 eight or nine inches long. Each flower has an 

 awl-shaped bracte at the base of the pedicel : the 

 corolla pale purplish rose-colour : the legumes an 

 inch and half long, and half an inch in breadth. 

 It is a native of many parts of Europe, flower- 

 ing at the end of June and beginning of July. 



It is a showy plant for shrubberies, wilder- 

 ness quarters, arbours, and trellis- work ; but too 

 large and rampant for borders of the common 

 flower-garden. 



There are many varieties; as the red-flowered, 

 the purple-flowered, the scarlet-flo\\ered, and 

 the large-flowered. 



Culhire. — These plants mav be readily raised, 

 bv sowing the seeds of the diflerent sorts in the 



