110 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



B/Ootstock thick, black, extending many feet down through the 

 shingle, branching above, the branches mostly starting from the same 

 point, slender and creeping. Stems 6 inches to 3 feet long, lying 

 flat on the ground. Leaflets 1 to 2 inches long, mostly alternate, 

 and diminishing in size towards the apex of the petiole, thick and 

 somewhat fleshy, directed upwards, particularly in the evening; 

 common petiole generally curved backwards, terminating in a very 

 short tendril. Stipules very large, ^ to 1 inch long, with auricles 

 on both sides of the base. Peduncles 1^ to 3 inches long ; raceme 

 f to 1 inch long. Flowers f to f inch long, purplish-crimson fading 

 to blue. Style straight, ascending at an obtuse angle with the 

 stigma, slightly dilated upwards and hairy. Pods reflexed, shortly 

 stipitate, 1-| to 2 inches long, brown when ripe, nearly straight, 

 their width nearly as great as the depth between the 2 sutures. 

 Seeds -5 inch in diameter, dusky-brown, paler towards the hilum, 

 slightly shiuing. Plant glabrous and glaucous. 



Sea Fea. 



French, Pois Maritime. German, Meerstrands Platterbse. 



This species of Lathyrus grows on shingly beaches, chiefly on the Eastern coast of 

 England, but not very abundantly anywhere. The seeds are bitter in taste, and very 

 unpalatable ; but, in the year 1555, the people in the neighbourhood of Aldborough and 

 Orford, in Suffolk, were kept alive during a time of famine by eating the seeds of this 

 plant, which grew abundantly on the sand-hills of the district. Its existence had not 

 been noticed by the inhabitants before, and they attributed its sudden appearance to 

 an interposition of Providence for their sustenance. Some, less willing to believe in 

 miracles, traced the origin of the plant to the wreck of a vessel laden with peas on the 

 coast during the previous year ; but, as the Sea Pea is nowhere cultivated, this seems 

 unlikely. It is more probable that the plant had grown there for centuries ; but the 

 seeds being nauseous in flavour, and botany not being studied in this district at this 

 period, no one had recollected the circumstance, until pressed by want to seek food 

 among the wild herbs of the neighbouring waste. With the necessity, the estimation 

 of the plant that had relieved it ceased, and it is now as little used as many others 

 which might be of equal value under similar circumstances. 



Section IV.— OEOBUS. Linn. 

 Petioles all bearing leaflets, but terminating in a linear or subu- 

 late point, not a tendril. Calyx gibbous at the base on the upper 

 side. 



SPECIES X.— LATHYRUS MACRORRHIZUS. Wimm. 

 Plate CCCCVI. 

 L. montanus, Bernh. Gorcke Fl. v. N. & Mit-Deutschl. ed. vi p. 112. 

 Orobus tuberosus, Linn. Sm. Eng. Bot. No. 1153. A'oc/i, Syn. Fl. Germ, et Helv. 

 ed. ii. p. 225. Fries, Sum. Veg. Scand. p. 46. 



Rootstock creeping, stoloniferous, bearmg small enlarged tubers 

 or knots. Stems erect or ascending, frequently decumbent at the 



