PEA FAMILY. Fabaccae. 



PEA FAMILY. Fabaceae. 



A very large family, including many important plants, 

 such as Clover, Alfalfa, Peas, and Beans; herbs, shrubs, 

 vines, and trees, distinguished principally by the flower and 

 fruit, resembling the butterfly-like corolla and simple pod 

 of the common Pea; leaves alternate, usually compound, 

 with leaflets and stipules; calyx five- toothed or five-cleft; 

 petals five. The upper petal, or "standard," large, cover- 

 ing the others in the bud, the two at the sides standing out 

 like "wings," the two lower ones united by their edges 

 to form a "keel," enclosing the stamens, usually ten, and 

 the single pistil with a curved style; the ovary superior. 



There are numerous kinds of Anisolotus, widely dis- 

 tributed, common, difficult to distinguish; mostly herbs, 

 some slightly shrubby; leaves with two or many, toothless 

 leaflets; calyx- teeth nearly equal; petals with claws, free 

 from the stamens, wings adhering to the keel, incurved, 

 blunt or beaked ; stamens joined by their filaments, in two 

 sets of one and nine, anthers all alike; style incurved; 

 pods two-valved, often compressed between the seeds, 

 never inflated. These plants have several common names, 

 such as Bird-foot, Trefoil, Cat's-clover, etc., and are called 

 Crowtoes by Milton. 



A gay and charming kind, with smooth 

 Pretty Bird-foot stems spre ading on the ground, light 

 Anisolotus ' r 



formosissimus S reen leav es, with five or more leaflets, 



(Lotus) and flowers about half an inch long, with a 



(Hosackia) golden-yellow standard, pink or magenta 



Pink and yellow w{ and wine . colored keel f orm i ng a 



spring 



Wash., Oreg., Cal. flattish cluster, the contrasting colors 



giving a vivid effect. This grows in damp 

 places along the sea-coast. 



A shrubby, branching plant, a foot and 



a half high, forming a pretty clump, two 



Amsolotus 



arsyraeus (Lotus) or three feet across, with downy, gray- 

 (Hosackia) green stems and foliage, sprinkled with 



Yellow clover-like heads of yellow flowers. The 



California leaflets are slightly thickish, covered with 



silky down, the twigs and young leaves 

 silvery- white. The small flowers are a soft shade of warm- 

 yellow, and the buds form neat, fuzzy, silvery balls. This 

 grows on dry hillsides in the Catali^a Islands. 



