From Blue to Purple 



Dry fields blued with the bright blossoms of the tufted vetch, 

 and roadsides and thickets where the angular vine sends forth 

 vivid patches of color, resound with the music of happy bees. Al- 

 though the parts of the flower fit closely together, they are elastic, 

 and opening with the energetic visitor's weight and movement give 

 ready access to the nectary. On his departure they resume their 

 original position, to protect both nectar and pollen from rain and pil- 

 ferers whose bodies are not perfectly adapted to further the flower's 

 cross-fertilization. The common humblebee (Bombus terrestris) 

 plays a mean trick, all too frequently, when he bites a hole at the 

 base of the blossom, not only gaining easy access to the sweets 

 for himself, but opening the way for others less intelligent than he, 

 but quite ready to profit by his mischief, and so defeat nature's 

 plan. Dr. Ogle observed that the same bee always acts in the 

 same manner, one sucking the nectar legitimately, another always 

 biting a hole to obtain it surreptitiously, the natural inference, of 

 course, being that some bees, like small boys, are naturally 

 depraved. 



In cultivated fields and waste places farther south and west- 

 ward to the Pacific Coast roams the Common or Pebble Vetch or 

 Tare (K saliva), another domesticated weed that has come to us 

 from Europe, where it is extensively grown for fodder. Let no 

 reproach fall on these innocent plants that bear an opprobrious 

 name: the tare of Scripture is altogether different, the bearded 

 darnel of Mediterranean regions, whose leaves deceive one by 

 simulating those of wheat, and whose smaller seeds, instead of 

 nourishing man, poison him. Only one or two light blue-purple 

 flowers grow in the axils of the leaves of our common vetch. The 

 leaf, compounded of from eight to fourteen leaflets, indented at 

 the top, has a long terminal tendril, whose little sharp tip assists 

 the awkward vine, like a grappling hook. 



The American Vetch, or Tare, or Pea Vine (K. Americana) 

 boasts slightly larger bluish-purple flowers than the blue vetch, but 

 fewer of them ; from three to nine only forming its loose raceme. 

 In moist soil throughout a very broad northerly and westerly range 

 it climbs and trails its graceful way, with the help of the tendrils 

 on the tips of leaves compounded of from eight to fourteen oblong, 

 blunt, and veiny leaflets. 



Beach, Sea, Seaside, or Everlasting Pea 



(Lathyrus maritimus) Pea family 



Flowers Purple, butterfly-shaped, consisting of standard petal, 

 wings, and keel ; i in. long or less, clustered in short raceme 

 at end of slender footstalk from leaf axils ; calyx 5-toothed ; 



2$ 



