STUDIES OF PLANT LIFE 
slender, branching, the leaves rather coarse; color of the 
blossoms azure blue, with the small upper lip somewhat 
curved. 
The old settlers imputed great virtues to this very humble 
herb, which it is more than doubtful if it possesses. Good 
faith, however, will often work marvellous cures. The idea 
was that the plant would avert the terrible effects of the 
bite of a mad dog. 
There is also a much handsomer species with larger 
flowers and simpler stem—the Common Skull-cap (8. 
galericulata). 
MARSH VETCHLING—MaARrsH PEsa—Lathyrus palustris (L.). 
(PLATE XI.) 
The Marsh Vetchling or Marsh Pea is a graceful climbing 
plant with purple flowers and long slender leaflets, arranged 
in pairs from two to four or six along the leafstalk, which 
terminates in a cluster of clasping thread-like tendrils. 
The flowers are placed on long slender arching peduncles 
springing from the base of the leafstalk, which is furnished 
at the joint with a pair of sharply-pointed stipules. 
The Marsh Pea is found chiefly in damp ground, among 
herbs and dwarf bushes, along the margins of low-lying 
lakes and creeks and sandy grassy flats. Its pretty purple 
pea-shaped blossoms and pale-green leaves attract the eye 
as it twines among the herbage and forms graceful garlands 
amidst the ranker and coarser plants to which it clings. A 
taller species with slender stalks two to four feet high, 
with ovate-elliptical leaves, much larger stipules, and an 
abundance of small pale blue-purple flowers, is also found 
on marshy shores. This is the variety myrtifolius of Gray. 
There are many other graceful twining plants of this 
order. The most remarkable of these is the 
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