274 The Natural System of Botany. 



Leguminosse furnish man with great quantities of excelle 

 food, such as the Pea and the Bean, and others are equall 

 valuable for cattle, as the various kinds of Clover and Lucem 

 Others afford some of the most important dyes, such as Indian 

 and Log-wood, and others again the finest woods, Brazil- wood' 

 Rose-wood, and Locust-wood. The medicinal products of 

 some species are in the most common use, as Senna, Cassia 

 and Acacia. Others still are attractive on account of their 

 great beauty, such as the Laburnums, and Robinias; and 

 others are very interesting on account of their physiological 

 peculiarities, as the Sensitive plant, the Gleditschias, and some 

 of the Acacias. 



The most important point in which all Leguminosae agree 

 is in the structure of their fruit, which is a pod or Leaumt. 

 This is a carpel which grows long and flat, and separates 

 when ripe into two valves. The pod of a pea is a ready iU us . 

 tration. Leguminosa? are divided into two sub-orders, Papili- 

 ONACEiE and Mimose^e. The first of these divisions is distin- 

 guished by the singular arrangement of the petals, which have 

 been thought to resemble a butterfly at rest. The flower of 

 the pea is an example, and is constructed as follows. The 

 calyx has rive small nearly equal sepals united into a short 

 tube. The corolla consists of five petals, one of which is much 

 larger than the rest, and is wrapped over them before the 

 flower expands. This is called the vexillum. In front of this 

 are two smaller petals, called wings, or alee. These are folded 

 over a curved or boat-shaped part, which is placed in front of 

 all the rest. It is formed of two petals, adherent at the lower 

 edge, and is called the keel or carina. The stamens are ten 

 in the pea diadelphous, but in some others monadelphous, or 

 distinct. 



In the Mimoseae the flowers are more nearly regular, the 

 stamens are definite in number, (from four or five to twenty,) 

 or else very numerous, and are inserted separately on the re- 

 ceptacle. In this division are contained the Senna, Mimosa, 

 and Acacia. Many of them have a very elegant appearance 

 their clusters of flowers being very numerous and often spleii 

 didly colored. Besides the structure of the fruit, all Legumi 

 nosae agree in that of the seed, the whole interior of which it 



