Lupinus perennis. 5 



nine, displayed horizontally, also densely pubescent. Young leaves 

 folded from the costa inwards. Stipules subulate. Flowers nume- 

 rous and very showy, borne on a perpendicular terminal spike, from 

 four to eight inches long. Calix pubescent, upper segment gibbous 

 at base, and of a purplish colour ; lower one larger, longer, yellow, 

 tipped with purple. Wings varying in colour, being Berlin-blue, 

 campanula-purple, or red-lilac-purple, and sometimes bluish-lilac- 

 purple, variegated with darker stripes of the same colour. Carina 

 white, or bluish-lilac-purple, tipped with deep auricula-purple. Vex- 

 illum Berlin-blue, tipped with imperial-purple. Stamens and pistils 

 greenish-yellow. Anthers orange-yellow. Legume torulose. Grows 

 in dry woods of sandy soil, and on dry sunny hills of gravelly 

 soil, from Canada to the most southern section of our country. 

 Flowers in May. 



This beautiful genus contains seven known species indigenous to 

 the United States, of which the present one is perhaps the most ele- 

 gant. Lupinus was so called by Pliny and other ancient writers; and 

 Professor Martyn is of opinion that the word owes its origin to the 

 word lupus, a wolf, because plants of this genus " ravage the ground 

 by overrunning it, after the manner of that animal." The word is 

 also supposed by some to be derived from *w, grief, a notion which 

 is supposed to be supported by Virgil's epithet, tristes lupini, which 

 he used, not perhaps without a full stretch of the poet's license, 

 from the fanciful idea that the acrid juices of the lupin he alluded to, 



