132 NARKOW-LEAVED EVERLASTING PEA. 



enumerated among our wild flowers, though it 

 is most probably the outcast of the garden. 



The genus Lathyrus, if we inchide the 

 Broad-leaved flower, contains eight native 

 species, but five of these are Vetchlings. The 

 only other wild Pea is the sea-side species 

 {Lathi/nis pisiformis). This grows on several 

 of our sea beaches, but is by no means a com- 

 mon flower. The seeds are rather bitter, but 

 in 1555, when great famine prevailed in 

 England, they were used as food, and thou- 

 sands of poor families were, by their means, 

 preserved from starvation. The seeds of all 

 this tribe are more numerous in dry than in 

 moist seasons, and doubtless afford a valuable 

 nutriment to birds ; while those of some of 

 our native species of Lathyrus may safely be 

 used as food for man. Like all our native 

 Leguminous plants, the seeds are contained in 

 pods, and the flowers are papilionaceous, or 

 butterfly-shaped. 



