
PEA FAMILY. Fabaceae. 
PEA FAMILY. Fabaceae. 
A very large family, including many important plants, 
such as Clover, Alfalfa, Peas, and Beans; herbs, shrubs, 
vines, and trees, distinguished principally by the flower and 
fruit, resembling the butterfly-like corolla and simple pod 
of the common Pea; leaves alternate, usually compound, 
with leaflets and stipules; calyx five-toothed or five-cleft; 
petals five. The upper petal, or ‘‘standard,”’ large, cover- 
ing the others in the bud, the two at the sides standing out 
like ‘“‘wings,’’ the two lower ones united by their edges 
to form a “‘keel,’”’ enclosing the stamens, usually ten, and 
the single pistil with a curved style; the ovary superior. 
There are numerous kinds of Anisolotus, widely dis- 
tributed, common, difficult to distinguish; mostly herbs, 
some slightly shrubby; leaves with two or many, toothless 
‘leaflets; calyx-teeth nearly equal; petals with claws, free 
from the stamens, wings adhering to the keel, incurved, 
blunt or beaked; stamens joined by their filaments, in two 
sets of one and nine, anthers all alike; style incurved; 
pods two-valved, often compressed between the seeds, 
never inflated. These plants have several common names, 
such as Bird-foot, Trefoil, Cat’s-clover, etc., and are called 
Crowtoes by Milton. 
A gay and charming kind, with smooth 
Etems See aves stems, spreading on the ground, light 
A nisolot : 
RE green leaves, with five or more leaflets, 
(Lotus) and flowers about half an inch long, witha 
(Hosackia) golden-yellow standard, pink or magenta 
oes yellow wings and wine-colored keel, forming a 
p 
Wash., Oreg., Cal. Hattish cluster, the contrasting colors 
giving a vivid effect. This grows in damp 
places along the sea-coast. 
A shrubby, branching plant, a foot and 
pode a half high, forming a pretty clump, two 
areyratus (Lotus) Ot three feet across, with downy, gray- 
(Hosackia) green stems and foliage, sprinkled with 
Yellow clover-like heads of yellow flowers. The 
Spring 
leaflets are slightly thickish, covered with 
silky down, the twigs and young leaves 
silvery-white. The small flowers are a soft shade of warm- 
yellow, and the buds form neat, fuzzy, silvery balls. This 
grows on dry hillsides in the Catalina Islands. 
California 

