41^ LEGUMINOUS PLANTS. 



slta'e. This root has been probably never before observed, and should 

 be tried under cultivation 



Farmers know very well that wild and uncultivated lands, mountains 

 and river banks produce a variety of pea-vines which are especially 

 sought after by stock, roaming through the thickets. It has also been 

 very generally noticed., that with the clearing of the land, the multiplica- 

 tion of cattle, and the spread of the root- destroying hog, the former 

 abundance of this kind of forage, that formerly held out in many re- 

 gions during the whole winter, has gradually grown less. Why this 

 large increase of the herbiverous domestic animals exerts such a dele- 

 terious influence upon their number and thins the rank of their species 

 woefully, in locations much exposed to their invasions, is readil" 

 understood from an observation of their growth and structure. 



Shrubby and arborescent species, worthy of consideration in the pres- 

 ent sense, occur only in the lower South and Southeast and all our val- 

 uable kinds are herbaceous plants. Some being closely appressed to 

 the soil, others creep over it in wide-spread tangles, some are partly de- 

 cumbent, few strictly erect, many are trailing and climbing Succulent, 

 herbs with a large surface from the development of numerous branches - 

 and copious foliage, they dislike exposure to the wind and prefer shel- 

 tered situations in forest and thicket ; only the creeping varieties like 

 full exposure on the open prairie. Stout stemmed and smooth Baptisias 

 make an exception. 



The wiry and stringy rootlets of grasses are securely protected 

 against the tread of heavy animals by an elastic cushion of tuft or sod, 

 but the single and scattered growing pea vines and their congeners 

 possess neither this benefit nor their slender form and elastic structure, 

 and are under a still greater disadvantage from their cumbersome struc- 

 ture, entangling the feet of the animals, and suffering more from 

 tramping and crushing than browsing. Grasses generally live longer as 

 the herbaceous leguminosae and grass seeds frequently escape destruction 

 by digestion but not so the latter. 



The economical value of these herbs depends as much on their abun- 

 ance as upon nutritious qualities, and it is evident that we ought to pre- 

 vent their decrease, or even extinction, by trying their cultivation, in 

 collecting their seeds and sowing them either separately or in mixture in 



