PEA FAMILY. Fabaceae. 



, . This little spiny desert shrub grows two 



ParostlaCah- ^ J . 



fomica (Dalea) or three feet high and is conspicuous on ac- 

 Blue count of the odd contrast in color between 



Spring its foliage and flowers. The woody stems 



a i ornj an( j b ranc h es are very pale in color and the 



very small leaflets, so narrow and stiff that they look like 

 evergreen needles, are covered with pale down and have 

 glandular dots. All over this colorless foliage are sprinkled 

 small spikes of indigo-blue flowers, so dark in color that the 

 effect, against a background of desert sand, is of pale gray, 

 speckled with black. It has a pleasant smell like balsam. 



. ' A low, desert shrub, with slender, 



Parosela Emoryi 



(Dalea) abruptly branching stems and small, soft, 



Magenta thickish leaves, usually with three leaflets, 



Spring, summer obscurely toothed, the stems and leaves 

 Southwest all thickly covered with white down. The 



flower-clusters are about three-quarters of an inch across, 

 like a small clover-head, the woolly calyxes giving a 

 yellowish-gray effect to the whole cluster, which is orna- 

 mented with a circle of tiny purple flowers. The effect of 

 these specks of dark color on the pale bush is odd; the 

 plant smells like balsam and grows in sandy soil. 



This is the only kind, an evergreen 



Chaparral Pea shmb flourishing on dry hills in the Coast 

 Xylothermia . 



montana Ranges, with tough, crooked branches 



(Pickeringia) and stout spines, forming chaparral so 

 Crimson dense that it is impossible to penetrate. 



gnarled, knotty, black branches ter- 

 minating in long spines, which are often clothed with small 

 leaves nearly to the end, the leaves with one to three, 

 small leaflets and without stipules. The bush is often 

 covered with quantities of pretty, bright, deep purplish- 

 pink flowers, three-quarters of an inch long, forming a 

 fine mass of color. The calyx has four, short, broad teeth; 

 the petals are equal, the standard roundish, with the sides 

 turned back and a paler spot at base, the wings oblong, the 

 keel straight ; the filaments of the ten stamens not united ; 

 the pod is two inches long, flat, straight, sickle-shaped when 

 young. This very rarely produces fruit. Stevenson was 

 probably describing this, shrub when he wrote, "Even the 

 low thorny chaparral was thick with pea-like blossoms." 

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