36 Pulse (Legumiriosce). [No. 7 



The plant is violently poisonous to the touch, causing 

 in most persons a painful eruption : some are poisoned by- 

 it without touching it, probably by means of the drifting 

 pollen of its flowers. A recommended application is 

 sugar of lead applied, after the use of saline cathartics, or 

 a thick paste of bi-carbonate of soda rubbed into the skin 

 as soon as the eruption appears. It is also claimed that 

 relief and, if used promptly, frequent cure follow the use 

 of apis mellifica or of belladonna, taken in homoeopathic 

 doses. There are wellnigh as many recommended anti- 

 dotes as there are for the bites of rattlesnakes ; and what 

 will help in some cases will not in others. 



No. 7.— Family LEGUMINdS,E. (Pulse Fam.) 



Floivers, irregular (papilionaceous, i. e., butterfly-like). 

 Petals, five, distinct (excepting the two that unite to 

 form the keel) ; the upper one, called the "standard" 

 or " banner," larger than the others and enclosing 

 them in the bud, and when fully blossomed usually 

 turned backward or widely spreading ; the two side 

 ones, called "wings" slanting, and lapping the lower 

 ones ; the two lower ones, forming the " keel " usually 

 more or less united by their front edges, and enclos- 

 ing the stamens and the style. Calyx, of five more or 

 less united sepals. Stamens, ten, either all or, much 

 oftener, all but one united toward the base. Style, 

 simple. Seed-case, free, one-celled; or (in Genus i, 

 Desmodium) with cross divisions forming a two- to 

 several-celled and jointed pod, each joint with one seed. 



Leaves, compound, alternate, edge of leaflets entire. 

 Stipules, present. Leaf-stems, swollen at the base. 



Fruit, a legume, i. e., a one-celled and two-valved pod, 

 like a pea-pod ; or in Genus i (Desmodium) a 



