POPULAR FLORA. 145 



2. Carolina V. Smooth; leaflets 8 to 12, oblong; flowers many, whitish, tipped with blue, rather 

 scattered on the peduncle, in spring. Banks, &c., common. V. CaroUniixna. 



3 AaiEHicAN V. Smooth ; leaflets 10 to 14, oval or oblong, very veiny ; flowers 4 to 8 on the pe- 

 duncle, purplish or bluish, in summer. N. V. Americana. 



* * Annual: flowers large, one or two together, sessile in the axils of the leaves. 

 i. Common Take. Leaflets 10 to 14, narrow ; flowers violet-purple. Cultivated fields, V. sa&va. 



Bean. Phas'eolus. 

 Keel of the corolla {with the included stamens and style) twisted or coiled, so as to form a ring, or 

 one or more turns of a spiral coil. Stamens diadelphous. Pod flat or flattish, several-seeded. Seeds 

 flattish. Plants twining more or less, in one cultivated variety short and erect. Leaves of three 

 leaflets, the end leaflet some way above the other two (i. b. pinnate of 3 leaflets); and they have stipels 

 or little stipules to the leaflets. Fl. summer. 



* Wild species: mostly found South and West. 



1. Perennial Bean. Climbing high; leaflets round-ovate, pointed ; flowers in long panicled racemes, 



purple ; pods curved. Wooded banks, &c. F. perennis. 



2. Trailing Bean. Annual, spreading on the ground ; leaflets 3-lobed or angled ; flowers few, 



crowded at the end of a long erect peduncle, purplish ; pods narrow, straight. Sandy places. 



P. divtrsifolius. 

 * * Cultivated Beans. 



3. Common or Kidney Bean. Known by its straight pods, pointed by the hardened lower part of the 



style, and tlie thick rather kidney-shaped seeds. The Dwakf or Bush Bean is a low and 

 small variety which does not twine. The Scarlet Runner is a free climbing variety, gen- 

 erally red-flowered. P. vulgaris. 



4. Lima Bean. Known by its broad and flat, curved or scymitar-shaped pods, with few and large flat 



seeds. The Civet Bean is a small variety of it. P. lunatus. 



False-Indigo. Bnptisia. 

 Flowers generally in racemes. Standard erect, with the sides rolled back: keel-petals nearly sepa- 

 rate and straight, like the wings. Stamens 10, separate! Pod stalked in the oalyx, bladdery, but 

 rather thick-walled, pointed, containing many small seeds. — Perennial herbs, erect and branched, 

 with palmate leaves of 3 leaflets. — The commonest are the following: — • 



1. Yellow False-Indigo. Glaucous, bushy-branched; leaves almost sessile; leaflets small, wedge- 



obovate; flowers few at the ends of the panicled branchlets, yellow, produced all summer. Dry 

 grounds, common. -B. tlnctdi'ia. 



2. Blue F. Tall and stout; stipules lance-shaped, as long as the petiole; leaflets wedge-oblong; 



flowers many, large, blue, in a long raceme, in spring or early summer. (Fig. 354, 355.) Rich 

 soil; common W. & S. and also cultivated in gardens. B. australis. 



Senna. Cassia. 



Calyx of 5 sepals. Petals 5, spreading, not papilionaceous, but a little irregular. Stamens 10, but 

 those on one side of the blossom commonly shorter, or without anthers; the anthers open at the top 

 by two chinks or holes. Pods many-seeded. — Leaves simply and abruptly pinnate. The common 

 species are herbs, with yellow flowers, in summer. 



