Wild Flowers East of the Rockies 167 

 PULSE FAMILY (Leguminosae). 



A very large and valuable family of plants, many 

 of them being food-producing. Usually they have 

 papilionaceous flowers, that is, with a standard, keel 

 and wings. The family is divided into three sub- 

 families containing 53 genera. 



WILD OR BLUE LUPINE (Lupinus perennis) re- 

 ceives its generic name from the Latin of wolf, be- 

 cause it was thought that the species preyed upon the 

 soil and made it infertile for other kinds of plants. It 

 is a very common species in sandy places and we of- 

 ten see it on the banks along railroads. Both the 

 leaves and the flowers are very attractive. The stem 

 is quite stout, erect, hairy and branching. The leaves 

 have long, slender stems; the leaf, proper, is palmate- 

 ly-divided into seven to eleven narrow, smooth-edg- 

 ed leaflets that radiate like the spokes of a wheel; 

 they are rather thin and delicate in structure and at 

 night partly fold together. 



The flowers are in long, showy, terminal spikes of 

 pea-like blossoms; they are bright purplish- blue in 

 color; the calyx is two-lipped, sides of the standard 

 reflexed and the keel scythe-shaped. The single pis- 

 til developes into an oblong, flattened, knotty pod 

 containing the seeds. Lupine is very common 

 through the United States, east of the Rocky Moun- 

 tains. 



BLUE FALSE INDIGO (Baptisia australis) is a tall 

 branching species with a stem from three to six feet 

 in height. The leaves are divided into three spat- 

 ulate-shaped leaflets. The violet-blue flowers grow 

 in long, loose spikes; they are about one inch long, 

 have a four or five-toothed calyx, straight keel and 

 wings, and short standard. The seed-pod has a spur 

 at its tip. This species is common from Pa. to Ga. 

 and west to Mo. 



