pulse jfamil^. 



Wild Pea-nut. Amphica/rpcea monoica. 



Common in rich, open woodlands and damp wayside tangles, 

 usually blossoming in August and September. 



A vine : climbing over low vegetation by aid of its slender, 

 twining, green stem. 



The 3 leaflets of the compound leaf are very broad across the 

 middle, especially the middle one, which is almost diamond-shaped ; the 

 margin is entire, the surface almost smooth, and the texture exceedingly 

 thin ; at the Juncture of the foot-stem with the blade, and with the 

 main stem, are small gland-like swellings ; the alternate leaves, on slen- 

 der stems, are of a light yellowish-green. 



The slender pea-shaped blossom is lavender- tinted, with a pale 

 green 4- to 5-notched calyx ; the flowers grow in groups of from 4 to 7, 

 on the end of a short flower-stem, that springs from the angle of the 

 leaf. 



The flowers occasionally ripen pods about 1 inch long, holding 

 from 3 to 4 brown-mottled, bean-like seeds. The vine is said also to 

 form subterranean seeds from rudimentary flowei's, the seed l)eing 

 enclosed in a fleshy, pear-shaped pod ; this perhaps may have been 

 thought a good reason for giving to a slender and well-behaved little 

 vine the opprobrious folk-name of Hog- Pea-nut ! But those who 

 know its true character will never degrade it to so low a level I 



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