PEA FAMILY, Fabaceae. 
There are numerous kinds of Lathyrus, widely dis- 
tributed and difficult to distinguish. In technical charac- 
ter and habit they very much resemble Vetches, but 
sometimes have no tendrils and the flowers are larger, the 
leaflets are broader, and the style is flattened and hairy, 
not only at the tip, but also along the upper side. The 
leaflets ‘are equal in number, the leaf-stalk usually ter- 
minating in a branching tendril; the flowers are in clusters; 
the calyx with five teeth, the upper commonly shorter; 
the style flattened and usually twisted; the pod flat or 
cylindrical, with no partitions between the seeds. Lathy- 
rus is the old Greek name of the Pea. 
This has flowers resembling the culti- 
Narrow-leaved = vated Sweet Pea, but the whole effect is 
Sweet Pea 
pes more airy and graceful. It is a loosely- 
' graminifolius trailing vine, with slender, angled stems, 
Pink and violet long, narrow leaflets, eight in number, and 
Syne three-cleft tendrils. The flowers~ are 
Arizona 
about three-quarters of an inch long, 
brightly yet delicately tinted with shaded pink and violet, 
and are so lightly poised on the long slender stalks that 
they look like a row of butterflies about to take flight. 
This grows on the plateau in the Grand Canyon and all 
through Arizona in the mountains. 
A smooth, trailing perennial, very 
Utah S tP i i i 
ah Sweet Pea graceful, with beautifully tinted flowers 
Léthyrus q : : 
Utahénsis and bright green foliage. The stipules 
Lilac are large, broad and leafy, and the leaflets 
Spring, summer 
re usually ten in number, veined and 
Utah, Col. y ‘ 
thin in texture, one or two inches long, 
with tendrils. The flowers are nearly an inch long, from 
four to eight in a cluster, on a long flower-stalk; the 
standard pinkish-lilac, delicately veined with purple, the 
wings pale lilac and the keel cream-color. The flowers, 
as they fade, although keeping their form, gradually change 
in color to all shades of blue, turquoise, and sea-green, 
finally becoming buff, so that the effect of the whole 
cluster is iridescent and very lovely. This grows on 
mountain slopes, often in oak-thickets, clambering over 
the bushes to a height of several feet and clinging to every- 
thing with its tendrils. 
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