BLUE AND PURPLE WILD FLOWERS 



alternated along opposite sides of a slender stem which 

 terminates in a tendril. The downy, thin-textured 

 leaflets are acutely pointed and bristle-tipped. The 

 main stalk is grooved, and grows from two to four feet 

 in length. The small flowers resemble those of a bean, 

 and are closely crowded along one side of a long curve- 

 ing spike growing from the angles of the leaves. They 

 are reflexed on the stem — that is, they are abruptly 

 bent or turned downward and are not erect, like, for 

 instance, the florets of a freshly opened Clover. 



WILD, OR HOG PEANUT 



Amphicarpa monoica. Pea Family. 



This ill-named, slender, sparingly branched climb- 

 ing vine grows from one to eight feet in length. It is 

 common everywhere in moist thickets and rich, damp 

 woodlands during August and September. Three 

 pointed, egg-shaped leaflets compose the compound leaf. 

 They are smooth, thin, toothless and short stemmed. 

 The delicate, light green alternating leaves are slen- 

 der stemmed. The butterfly-shaped flowers are gath- 

 ered in small, drooping, short-stemmed clusters, at the 

 leaf angles. They are purplish or lilac, and precede the 

 numerous small, hairy pods containing several mot- 

 tled brown seeds. Rudimentary flowers are also borne 

 on very slender, creeping stems at the base or root of 

 the vine and ripen their fruit beneath the surface of 

 the ground in the form of fleshy, pear-shaped pods. 

 Pigs are notorious rooters after these subterranean 

 Peanuts, and consequently country people began to 



33 6 



