HOW TO GROW GOOD CLOVER. Ill 



lenticular as in the lentil, or kidney-shaped as in the 

 clovers, they are all readily referred to one group 

 by the flat, oval eye {hilum of the botanist), and the 

 fact of their ready capability of separating into two 

 valves {cotyledons), so observable in our split peas 

 and beans. 



Bat of all the varieties in their parts presented by 

 the pea-flowered tribe of plants, — if we except the fact 

 that some are larger trees, as the locust tree, ebony, 

 laburnum, &c, whilst some are among our smallest 

 jilants, as clovers and medicks, — the principal dif- 

 ferences will be found in the foliage. The jn'ass 

 vetchling, for example, is so named from its leaves 

 being not unlike those of grasses, while the yellow 

 vetchling, in its mature state, has the whole leaf con- 

 verted into a tendril and the appendages at the bases of 

 the leaves {stipules) are so enlarged as to be often mis- 

 taken for leaves : in another of the vetchlings, the 

 everlasting sweet-pea, we find that, as so much of the 

 leaf is converted into tendrils to enable this handsome 

 plant to climb over the hedges and thickets, the stem 

 is made four- winged with leaf-matter, to ensure the 

 due performance of the leaf function. Now parts 

 called stipules are present in this whole tribe, and, 

 like all other parts of these plants, they vary in form, 

 size, and markings, and hence afford important aid in 

 the discrimination of species. Again, the old furze- 

 bush will have its leaves converted into spines, 

 though the seedling started with a trifoliate leaf. 

 Points like these, however, though most interesting 

 to the student of vegetable physiology, are beyond 

 the scope of the present work. 



Like every other point connected with this inter- 

 esting natural order of plants, their uses and 

 l 2 



