PEA FAMILY. Fabaceae. 
This has such glorious flowers, so superb 
sex aie in color and form, that it is by far the 
California 3 Z 
Eithvras handsomest of its kind and not to be 
spléndens mistaken for any other. The stout, 
Crimson smooth, stems are dark green, the stipules 
sci small, and the leaves are smooth, slightly 
California 
thickish and stiffish, rather dark bluish- 
green, with about ten leaflets. The flowers are over two 
inches long, from the tip of the standard to the end of the 
keel, and form a massive cluster of eight or ten blossoms, 
hanging on drooping pedicels and shading in color from 
the pale-salmon of the buds to the brilliant rose, carmine, 
and wine-color of the open flowers, the older flowers being 
very dark and rich. Only a small part of the flower- 
cluster is given in the picture. These plants, which are 
found around San Diego and farther south, clamber over 
the neighboring bushes to a height of several feet and 
adorn them with wonderful color, giving an effect of 
tropical splendor. 
There are innumerable kinds of Astragalus; most 
abundant in Asia, usually perennial herbs, sometimes 
woody; leaves usually with numerous leaflets, flowers 
narrow, in spikes, with long flower-stalks; calyx tube- 
shaped, with nearly equal teeth; petals usually narrow, 
with slender claws, standard erect and somewhat oblong, 
wings oblong, keel with blunt tip, about the same length 
as the wings; stamens ten, in two sets of nine and one; pods 
numerous, more or less two-celled, often inflated, so the 
wind can distribute the small seeds, therefore these plants 
are often called Rattleweed. Another name is Milk 
Vetch and many kinds are called Loco-weed, from the 
word ‘‘loco,’’ or crazy, because they are poisonous to horses 
and cattle. I was told by a cow-boy in Arizona that 
“horses eat this because it tastes sweet, but it gives them 
water on the brain and they die, unless the skull is split 
with an axe and the water is let out!”’ 
; A decorative plant, its pale flowers 
Astragalus : : ; 
ieee contrasting well with the dark foliage, 
White with stout, branching stems, from two to 
Spring, summer three feet tall, hairy above, and many 
es na leaflets, dark-green on the upper side, 
hairy and paler on the under. The flowers are half an 
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