THE PEA FAMILY. 271 



Should no little holes then let through the sunshine they would seek to 

 place it somewhere else in the great pea family. 



A. fncticbsa, bastard, or false indigo, grows as a shrub to often the 

 height of twenty feet. For one place it thrives along the shores of the St. 

 John's river in Florida where its wand-like racemes of purple flowers pro- 

 duce an unusual effect among the gayer colours of other plants. Us pods 

 which are curved on the back bear mostly two seeds and on tiie outside 

 are covered with small, blister-like dots. 



A. Jbcr-bdcea has an individual look from the silvery grey tomentum which 

 covers its stems, petioles and the under side of its leaves. Its leaflets also 

 are smaller and of a more yellow-green than those of its mentioned relatives. 

 Again its numerous and slender racemes of bloom do not send out a purple 

 glow, for the small banner petal is pale blue or white, and much shadowed 

 by the leaden down on the calyx. 



QATTINQER'S PRAIRIE CLOVER. {Plate LXXXII) 

 Petalostemon Gattingeri. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Fta. Pinkish purple. Scentless. Tennessee. August. 



Flmuers : small ; growing closely in a terminal, pyramidal and bracted spike. 

 Calyx : with five almost equal teeth, and covered with a silvery grey pubescence. 

 Corolla : of five ])etals, each projected by thread-like long claws. Slamens ; 

 five, protruding. Leaves: compound; odd-pinnate, the leaflets with very short 

 petiolules ; linear, bluntly-pointed at both ends ; entire ; bright green ; glabrous 

 and dotted with glands. A leafy herb with smooth stems branching from the 

 base. 



Hardly a more charming plant crops up as our path leads us over dry 

 soil in central Tennessee than this very prairie clover. And yet it is one 

 with which few are familiar. It is most interesting to notice that the 

 lower flowers of its spike are fully blown some time in advance of the top- 

 most ones which still lie hidden within their calyxes of silvery grey sheen. 



PRAIRIE=CLOVER 



Kuhiiistcra pinnata. 



Floi.ver-heads : rounded ; growing in abundant, terminal corymbs surrounded by 

 an involucre of imbricated, oval and reddish, ciliate bracts. Calyx-tectli : seta- 

 ceous, plumose. Petals: almost regular, borne on filiform claws. Stamens: 

 five united into a tube. Leaves: compound; odd-i^innate, the mostly three to 

 seven leaflets needle-shaped and usually less than a half of an inch long. Stem : 

 about two feet high, erect, bright reddish brown at the base, smooth, leafy, at 

 least when young. 



