PEA FAMILY 



Flowers. — April, May, before and with the leaves, papilionaceous. 

 Perfect, rose color, borne four to eight together, in fascicles which 

 appear at the axils of the leaves or along the branch and sometimes 

 on the trunk itself 



Calyx. — Dark red, campanulate, oblique, five-toothed, imbricate 

 in bud. 



Corolla. — Papilionaceous, petals five, nearly equal, pink or rose 

 color, upper petal the smallest, enclosed in the bud by the wings, 

 and encircled by the broader keel petals. 



Stamens. — Ten, inserted in two rows on a thin disk, free, the inner 

 row rather shorter than the others. 



Pistil. — Ovary superior, inserted obliquely in the bottom of the 

 calyx tube, stipitate ; style fleshy, incurved, tipped with an obtuse 

 stigma. 



Fruit. — Legume, slightly stipitate, unequally oblong, acute at 

 each end. Compressed, tipped with the remnants of the style, 

 straight on upper and curved on lower edge. Two and a half to 

 three inches long, rose color, full grown by midsummer, falls in 

 early winter. Seeds ten to twelve, chestnut brown, one-fourth of an 

 inch long ; cotyledons oval, flat. 



A tree as large as an apple tree and having something of 

 the same habit, covered with tiny rose colored pea-like blos- 

 soms from the crown of its leafless head to its trunk, is an 

 astonishing sight even to one accustomed to observe the 

 wonders of vegetable life. Such is the Redbud, a low tree 

 with a flat spreading head, growing from Canada to Virginia 

 in the low lands, and dividing the honors of early spring with 

 the Shad Bush and the Dogwood. These flowers which ap- 

 pear before the leaves, are small, borne in clusters along the 

 branch except at the very end and sometimes on the trunk 

 itself. 



The normal place for flowers to appear is in the axils of 

 the leaves, and when bright, beautiful, rosy blossoms break 

 forth from the bark of old branches or from tiie very trunk, 

 the fact requires explanation. Many have been offered and 

 the one accepted is that they are produced year after year 

 from excrescences which correspond to the axils of ancient 

 leaves and are composed of the remnants of the axes of ear- 

 lier inflorescences which have gradually united and formed a 

 more or less prominent mass. Whatever the explanation 



1 06 



