282 THE PEA FAMILY. 



Commonly in summer we come across the vetches, always either trailing 

 or climbing by means of their long, strong tendrils. This particular one 

 grows abundantly in open woods in the mountains and on cliffs, or rocks 

 along the river's shore. 



V. sativa, common vetch or tare, is seen occasionally through our fields 

 and pastures and has come to us from Europe where it is cultivated as 

 fodder for cattle. That many of its obovate leaflets are deeply notched at 

 the apex and that but one or two almost sessile flowers grow in the leaves' 

 axils are marks by which it may be known. Furthermore its corolla is pur- 

 plish blue. 



Eryt/irma herbacea {Plate LXXX VII.) 



Floxvers : showy, produced in long racemes. Catyx : tubular, the teeth un- 

 developed. Vexilhim : very long, lanceolate, folded lengthwise. Wings and 

 keel: small. Stamens : somewhat exserted. Pods : long, curved, contracted at 

 intervals and containing bright scarlet, lustrous seeds. Leaves: borne on long 

 smooth petioles which bear one, or a few small recurved prickles; three-foliate, 

 the leaflets long pointed, broadly ovate or hastate, are petiolate, entire, glabrous 

 or nearly so. Stems : two to four feet high or more, prickly, several arising from 

 a large thick root. 



Only those that have seen this curious plant can fully appreciate how fan- 

 tastic are its flowers, how strangely shaped its leaves and how beautiful its 

 pod's scarlet seeds. Among all other growing things it enchains us and we 

 pause longer than our wont to marvel at nature's great floral pageant wherein 

 no detail is lost, nothing is insignificant. What a surprise lurks in this very 

 colouring of the Erythrinas seeds ! Released from their pods they are as 

 startling as Mephistopheles throwing off the shade of night. As they fall 

 on light sandy soil, we pick them up, little dreaming perhaps that under 

 their lustrous, smooth surface is hidden the miniature plant of the next sea- 

 son. 



BUTTERFLY PEA. 



Clin tori a Ma ria n a . 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



/'ea. Fale lavender. Fragrant. Florida to North JMay-Augiist. 



Jersey aud "westward. 



Flowers : large ; showy ; solitary or a few borne on a short peduncle. Calyx : 

 tubular, expanding at the apex ; five-toothed. Corolla : papilionaceous, the 

 standard very much larger than the other petals, erect, broadly ovate, notched at 

 the apex. Stamens: ten, monodelphous. Style: bearded. Pods.: long; ap- 

 pearing late in the season. Leaves : with long smooth petioles and small stipules 

 at their bases; three-foliate, the leaflets also stalked and with stipels, ovate- 

 lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, bluntly pointed and mucronate at the apex, 

 rounded at the base, entire dark green above, lighter below, glabrous. Stem : as- 

 cending or twining; smooth, 



