PULSE FAMILY. Leguminosas. 



PULSE FAMILY. Leguminosce. 



A very large family of food-producing plants, with 

 Ibutterflylike flowers, and alternate, usually compound 

 leaves, generally without teeth. The flowers are perfect 

 .and are borne singly or in spikes ; they are fertilized 

 largely by bees and butterflies. 



A smooth and slender plant with deep 

 Wild Indigo 

 ^aptisia gray-green, triple leaves of wedge-shaped 



tinctoria leaflets covered with a slight bloom ; they 



Yellow are almost stemless. The small pealike 



June-August blossoms are pure yellow, and terminate 

 the many branches of the upright stem. The flowers 

 .are visited by the butterflies and the Syrphid flies, but 

 the honeybee, the leaf-cutter bee Megachile, and the 

 bees of the genus Halictus are probably the most effi- 

 cient agents of cross-fertilization. The plant grows 

 with a bushy luxuriance in favorable situations, and has 

 -a most remarkable habit of turning black upon wither- 

 ing. 18-28 inches high. In dry sandy soil everywhere. 

 Not in central N. H. , but common at Nan tucket. Found 

 at Pownal, Vt. 



A beautiful, tall, western species, with 

 Blue False 



Indigo P a ^ e g reen smooth stem, light green 



Baptisia wedge-shaped, short-stalked triple leaves, 



australis and loose flower-clusters, sometimes 10 



Light violet inches long, of light, dull violet blossoms 

 quite 1 inch long, of a soft, aesthetic hue. 

 The peapodlike fruit is tipped with a spur. Plant 3-6 

 feet high. On rich alluvial soil, western Pa., south to 

 Ga., and west to Mo. Quite handsome in cultivation. 



The rattlebox, so named because the 

 Crotalaria seeds rattle about in the boxlike, inflated, 

 .sagittalis sepia-black pods, has oval pointed leaves, 



Yellow toothless, and nearly stemless, growing 



June-August a i ternate i y along the bending stem. The 

 yellow flowers are scarcely J inch long. The stems and 

 -edges of the leaves are soft-hairy. 4-12 inches high. 

 In dry sandy soil everywhere, but not very common. 



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