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 ona thin disk, free, the inner 
row rather shorter than the others. 
Pistil.—“ ‘vary superior, inserted obliquely in the bottom of the 
calyx tub. 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 the 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 
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