LEGUMINOUS PLANTS. 1 5 



marvellous things. Rub one gently with a bit of straw and it will 

 answer to the touch by bending. Give it an opportunity to grasp 

 the branch of an adjoining plant and it will embrace the branch so 

 firmly that it will be impossible to loosen the plants without breaking 

 the tendril. It has the faculty of feeling and the ability to act. Its 

 sensitiveness is so great that some tendrils can feel a weight of only 

 a quarter of a milligram. 



Two appendages, 

 the stipules, are at- 

 tached to the base of 

 the leaf stalk (Fig. 6, 

 St.). They are gener- 

 ally narrow and in- 

 significant, but some- 

 times, as in peas, 

 they are shaped like 

 the leaflets and are 

 almost as large. 



St... 



L c>*- 



Inflorescence : The 



flowers of leguminous 

 plants are in clusters 

 which, however dif- 

 ferent in appearance, 

 are always construct- 

 ed after the same 

 principle. Sometimes 

 they are long and 

 comparatively sparse- 

 ly covered with flow- 

 ers, as in vetches 

 Fig. e. Leaf of Aisikc Clover. (Plates 24 and 25). 



Natural size. _,, , ., , 



St. Stipule. 1 hey are then called 



racemes. In other plants the racemes are short and the flowers 

 crowded, as in Red Clover and Alsike. The inflorescences are then 

 called heads. It is, however, impossible to draw a sharp line between 

 a head and a raceme, the inflorescences, for instance, of Alfalfa 

 (Plate 21) and Crimson Clover (Plate 17) being as much like 

 short racemes as elongated heads. 



Flowers: The flowers of all leguminous plants are alike in general 

 construction and totally different from the flowers of other plant 



