FALSE INDIGO 



limes nine are together and one is apart; rarely, all 

 are separate. The fruit is a pod called a Legume, "I 



which the pea pod is a typical example. 



The PapilionacecB are in mam- respects a wonderful 

 group of plants. One of their greatest and most re- 

 markable qualities has but recently been understood. 

 For ages leguminous seeds have been valued for their 

 nourishing- quality, differing from grain in the fact 

 that they contain a large percentage of nitrogen as 

 contrasted with the predominating carbon compounds 

 of the cereals. The question whence came this great 

 quantity of nitrogen long remained a horticultural 

 problem, but recently nature's riddle has been solved. 

 It is now known that the roots of leguminous plants 

 are the hosts of myriads of organisms called bacte- 

 roids, some of which possess the power of fixing the 

 free nitrogen of the air, and through them it is ac- 

 quired by the plant. 



FALSE INDIGO 



Amorpha frutiebsa. 



Amorpha, deformed ; so named because four petals are 

 wanting. 



Tall, five to twenty feet high ; prefers the borders of streams ; 

 native to the Mississippi valley ; frequently cultivated. 



Leaves. — Alternate, compound, odd-pinnate, six to sixteen 

 inches long ; leaflets eleven to twenty-one, short-stalked, one to 

 two inches long, oval or elliptic, rounded or narrowed at base, 

 entire, obtuse, slightly mucronate or emarginate at apex, spar- 

 ingly punctate with pellucid dots. They come out of the bud 

 pale green, clammy and hairy, when full grown are a bright yel- 

 low, green above,' paler beneath. In autumn they become pale 

 yellow. 



95 



