LEGUMINOSiE. 77 



Sepals obtuso, larger than the petals. Root medicinal. A valuable stimulating 

 expectorant. 



* * * Perennials ; flowers purple, showy, larger than tlie former ; hearing whitish 

 fertile ones on subterranean branches. 



6. P. polygama, Walt, Bitter Milkwort. 



Stems numerous, simple, erect and procumbent; leaves linear-lanceolate, or 

 obovate, alternate, attenuate downwards; racemes filiform, terminal and lateral, 

 •longated ; flowers sessile, the broadly obovate wings longer than the crested corolla. 

 Fields and pastures. June, July. Stems crowded, many from the Fame root, 

 angular, smooth. Leaves smooth, lower obovate, upper linear-lanceolate, obtuse, 

 sessile. Fknvt rs purple, x /\ inch in diameter, very handsome, 8-andfous. Sultera- 

 nean flowers on procumbent racemes, without relals, sessile. Bitter and tonic. 



7. PAUCIFOLIA, "Willd. Fringed Pohjgala. 



Stem simple, erect, naked below, rising from long and slender prostrate or subte- 

 Tanean shoots, which bear concealed fertile flowers ; leaves ovate, acute, smooth ; 

 terminal flowers mostly in threes, large cristate, sometimes axillary ; xcings obovate, 

 rather shorter than the conspicuously fringe-crested keel. 



Woods along mountains in light soil. May. A delicate plant with large showy 

 purple flowers, % inch long. Stem 3 to 4 inches high. Lower leaves small and 

 scattered, scale-like. The radical flowers are either close to the ground or subtera- 

 jiean, smaller, greenish, 



Order 38. LEGUMIN0S1E.— Leguminous Plants, 



Herbaceous plants, shrubs or trees, with alternate mostly compound leaves with siiph 

 ulcr, and papilionaceous flowers, lC?monodelphoti$, diadelphous, or rarely distinct 

 stamens, and a single, simple pistil, producing a legume in fruit. Calyx of 5 sepals 

 more or less united. Petals 5, papilionaceous or rarely regularly spreading. Sta- 

 mkns definite or indefinite, inserted with the corolla. Ovary simple, superior. 

 Fbvix a legume. Seeds attached to the upper suture, without albumen. 



Sub-order I. PAPILIONACEJE, 



Petals truly papilionaceous, imbricate in aestivation, the 

 upper one extended. Stamens 10, mostly diadelphous, 9 

 united by their filaments into a sheath split on the upper 

 gide when the 10th is free. 



Tribe 1. VICIE^E. The Vetch or Pea Tribe. 



BerU with abruptly pinnate leaves, the common petiole produced into a tendril or bris- 

 tle ; peduncles axillary. 



1. VICIA. Tour. Vetch. 

 Calyx tubular, 5-cleft or 5-toothed, the 2 upper teeth 

 often shorter. Stamens diadelphous. Style filiform, bent 

 at a right angle with the ovary, hairy down the entire side. 

 Legume oblong, many-seeded. — Herbaceous mostly climbing 

 plants, with abruptly pinnate leaves of several pairs of leaflets, 

 and a branching tendril. Peduncles axillary. 



