28o 



THE PEA FAMILY. 



AI. laevigdta, smooth tick-trefoil, may be distinguished from the preceding 

 species by its smaller leaflets, smooth on both sides and glaucous under- 

 neath. Its panicle also has not very widely diffused branches. 



TRAILING BUSH=CLOVER. 



Lcspedcza procunibens. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR 



Pea. Fiirplisk />ink ScC/i^/fss. 



or violet purple. 



RANGE 



Florida to Massachu- 

 setts a ltd ivcstiva rd. 



TIME OF BLOOM 



A ugiist, 

 September. 



PetalifcroHs flcnoers: growing in clusters on pubescent peduncles which are 

 longer than the leaves. Calyx: with nearly equal lobes. Corolla: papili- 

 onaceous, the banner petal obovate, clawed, pointed at the apex. Stamens : 

 nine and one, diadelphous, Apetalons flowers : small, intermingled or in sub- 

 sessile little clusters along the branches. Pods : flat, pubescent and bearing one 

 seed. Leaves : with short petioles and small stipules, three-foliate, the leaflets 

 small oval, or elliptical, blunt at the apex and mostly rounded at the base ; en- 

 tire; pubescent underneath. Stem: long; procumbent with ascending branches; 

 woolly or soft downy. 



While the trailing bush clover has a look very like some of the meibomia 

 tribe there are others of the genus, the wandlike one, for instance, which 

 have an altogether different and individual personality, and by no means 

 are they all beautiful. A peculiar trait of the genus is that it bears two 

 sorts of flowers along the branches ; the showy ones with petals which are 

 perfect but seldom, if ever, fruitful, and others without petals, looking in- 

 significant but which are very useful, being extremely fertile. Again from 

 the meibomias these plants may be known by 

 their pods, they being composed of but one 

 joint, and containing a single seed. It was in 

 honour of Lespedez, a patron of Michaux and 

 at one time Governor of Florida, that the gen- 

 eric name was bestowed. 



L. violdcecE, bush-clover, has an ascending, 

 branched stem and bears its flowers in a loose 

 panicled inflorescence, the petaliferous ones of 

 which are small and grow on thread-like ped- 

 icels. Its oval or obovate leaflets vary in size 

 greatly. 



L.frutescens, wandlike bush-clover, becomes 

 in the late summer, or early autumn a very con- 

 spicuous plant, as it raises through wooded 

 places its long, full clusters 

 of pinkish and almost sessile| 



Lcspedeza prociDiibens, 



