506 LEGUMINOSAE (PULSE FAMILY) 



* Bacemes many, short and loose, terminal, often leafy at base ; flowers yellow. 



1. B. tinctftria (L.) R. Br. (Wild Indigo.) Smooth and slender, 3-9 dm. 

 high, rather glaucous; leaves almost sessile; leaflets wedge-obovate, 1.5-2.5 

 cm. long; stipules and bracts minute and deciduous; pods ovoid-globose, on a 

 stalk longer than the calyx. — Dry woods and plains, 8. N. H. to Fla., locally 

 westw. to Ky. and Minn. June-Sept. 



* * Bacemes fewer, opposite the leaves. 

 1- Flowers yellow. 



2. B. villftsa (Walt.) Ell. Sometimes soft-hairy, usually minutely pubefeoent 

 when young, erect, 6-9 dm. high, with divergent branches; leaves almost 

 sessile ; leaflets wedge-lanceolate or obovate ; lower stipules lanceolate and 

 persistent, on the branohlets often small and subulate ; racemes many-flowered , 

 pedicels short ; bracts subulate, mostly deciduous ; pods ovoid-ellipsoid, taper- 

 pointed, minutely pubescent. — Va. to N. C. and Ark. May, June. 



•I- -1- Flowers white or cream-color. 



3. B. bractejlta (Muhl.) Ell. Hniry, low (8 dm. high), with divergent 

 branches ; leaves almost sessile ; leaflets narrowly oblong-obovate or spatulate ; 

 stipules and bracts large and leafy, persistent; racemes long (often 3 dm.), 

 reclined; flowers on elongated pedicels, cream-color ; pods pointed at both ends, 

 hoary. {B. leucophaea Nutt.) — Prairies, Mich, to Minn., s. to Tex. May. 



4. B. leuclntha T. & G. Smooth, tall, and stout; leaflets oblong-wedge- 

 form, obtuse; stipules early deciduous; flowers lohite; pods ovoid-ellipsoid, 

 on a stalk fully twice the length nf the calyx. — Alluvial soil, Ont. and 0. to 

 Minn., s. to Fla. and La. June, July. 



5. B. Alba (L.) R. Br. Smooth, -3-9 dm. high, the branches slender and 

 widely spreading ; petioles slender ; stipules and bracts minute and deciduous ; 

 leaflets oblong or oblanceolate ; racemes slpnder, on a long naked peduncle ; 

 pods linear-oblong, 2.5-4 cm. long, short-stalked. — Dry soU, N. C. to Fla. and 

 Ala.; and reported from Ind., Mo., etc. May. 



■I- t- ■(- Flowers indigo-blue. 



6. B. austraiis (L.) R. Br. (Blue F.) — Smooth, tall and stout (1.2-1.6 m. 

 high); leaflets oblong-wedge-form, obtuse; stipules lanceolate, as long as the 

 petioles, rather persistent ; raceme elongated (3-fi dm.) and many-flowered, 

 erect ; bracts deciduous ; stalk of the ovoid-ellipsoid pods about the length of 

 the calyx. — Alluvial soil. Pa. to Ga., w. to s. Ind., Kan. and Ark.; cultivated 

 eastw., and established on alluvium of Ct. R. and tributaries, Vt. May, June. — 

 Hybridizes with B. bracteata, according to Hitchcock. 



10. THERM6PSIS R. Br. 



Pod sessile or shortly stipitate in the calyx, flat, linear, straight or curved. 

 Otherwise nearly as Baptisia. — Perennial herbs, with palmately S-foliolate 

 leaves and foliaceous stipules, not blackening in drying, and yellow flowers in 

 terminal racemes. (Name from ddp/ios, the lupine, and (!^is, appearance.) 



1. T. m611is (Miclix.) M. A. Curtis. Finely appressed-pubescent, 4-6 dm. 

 high; leaflets rhombic-lanceolate, 2.6-7.5 cm. long; stipules narrow, mostly 

 shorter than the petiole ; raceme elongated ; pods narrow, short-stipitate, some- 

 what curved, 5-10 cm. long. — Mts. of s.Va., N. C, and Tenn. May. 



11. CLADRAsTIS Raf. Yellow Wood. Virgilia 



Calyx 5-toothed. Standard large, roundish, reflexed ; the distinct keel-petala 

 and wings straight, oblong. Stamens 10, distinct ; filaments slender, incurved 

 above. Pod short-stalked above the calyx, linear, flat, thin, marginless, 4-6- 

 seeded, at length 2-valved. — A handsome tree, with yellow wood (yielding a 

 dye), smooth bark, nearly smooth pinnate leaves of 7-11 oval or ovate leaflets, 

 i^ild ample panicled racemes (2.5-5 6^m. lon^) of showy white flowers drooping 



