LEGUMINOUS PLANTS. 419 



legume in fruit. Seeds mostly without albumen. Leaves alternate, 

 with stipules, usually compound. One of the sepals inferior, (i. e. 

 next the bract,) one of the petals superior (i. e. next the axis' of the in- 

 florescence). This order is a large one, being composed of about 550 

 genera and 7,000 species. It contains a great many useful plants, sup- 

 plying not only food, but timber, fibres, gums, dyes, and various eco- 

 nomical substances. Among the few poisonous plants in their ranks 

 may be mentioned: Two ornamental plants: Ooronilla varia and 

 Cytisus Laburnum of Europe. Gompholobium uncinatum of Australia, 

 and Physostygma venenosum, the ordeal bean of Calabar. Of our 

 species the Baptisias are suspicious. The territory between the Missis- 

 sippi and the Atlantic enumerates 55 genera with about 200 species. 



The order is divided in three sub-orders, the first sub-division repre- 

 senting it principally in the temperate regions, the two other belong to 

 warmer climates and tropics nearly exclusively. 



Sub-order 1. Papilionaccse. Proper pulse family. Calyx of five 

 sepals, more or less united, often unequally so. Corolla perigynous 

 (inserted into the base of the calyx) of five irregular petalB (or very 

 rarely fewer) imbricated in the bud, more or less distinctly^papiliona- 

 ceous, i. e. with the upper odd petal, called the vexillum or standard, 

 larger than the others, and enclosing them in the bud, usually turned 

 backward or spreading ; the two lateral ones, called the wings, oblique 

 and exterior to the lower petals, which last are convenient, and com- 

 monly more or less coherent by their anterior edges, forming a body 

 named the carina or keel, from its resemblance to the keel or prow of a 

 boat, and which usually encloses the stamens and pistil. Stamens ten, 

 rarely five, inserted with the corolla, monadelphous, diadelphous, 

 (mostly with stamen united in one set in a tube, which is cleft on the 

 upper side, that is next the standard, and the tenth or upper one sepa- 

 rate), or occasionally distinct. Ovary, one-celled, sometimes two- 

 celled by an intrusion of one of the sutures, or transversely two many 

 celled by cross division into joints; style simple, ovules amphltropous, 

 rarely anatropous. Cotyledons large, thick or thickish; radicle in- 

 curved. Leaves simple or simply compound, the earliest ones in- 

 mination usually opposite, the rest alternate. Leaflets always quite 

 entire. Flowers perfect, solitary or axillary, in spikes, racemes, or 

 panicles. 



LUPINUS PERENNIS, L— {Common wild Lwpine.) 



A genus largely scattered over the West with over 50 species. Our 

 species is blue flowered in a large receme with a palmately 5-15 leaved 

 foliage. Not frequent. (Palmately means like the leaves of the 

 buckeye). Eatable. Flowers April and May. Alleghany Mountains. 



