ROSE FAMILY 137 



acute ; flowers bluish-purple, 2 — 6 together. — Boggy meadows; 

 rare. Fl. June — August. Perennial. 



10. L. maritimus (Seaside Everlasting Pea). — Stem prostrate, 

 glabrous, glaucous, angled, not winged ; leaflets 6 — 10, egg-shaped; 

 peduncles shorter than the leaves, 5 — 10- flowered; flowers purple^ 

 variegated with crimson and fading to blue. — Pebbly sea-shores; 

 rare. — Fl. June — August. Perennial. 



**** Perennials : leaflets 4 — 12; without tendrils : flowers 

 2—8 together. (Bitter Vetches.) 



11. L. montdnus (Tuberous Bitter Vetch). — Root tuberous; 

 stem simple, erect, winged ; leaflets 4 — 8, oblong, glaucous beneath ; 

 stipules half-arrow- shaped; flowers axillary, purple, variegated with 

 purple, fading to green or blue. — Woods ; common. A pretty 

 spring Vetch, growing in similar situations with the Wood Anemone, 

 but appearing somewhat later. It may be at once distinguished 

 by being destitute of tendrils, the pkce of which is supplied by a 

 soft, bristle-like point. The tubers were eaten in the Scottish 

 Highlands, under the name of Cormeille, a very small quantity being 

 said to allay hunger. — Fl. May — August. Perennial. 



12. L. niger (Black Bitter Vetch), distinguished by its branched, 

 angled, but not winged stem, and its very narrow stipules, occurs 

 rarely in rocky woods in Scotland. It turns black when dried. 

 — Fl. June — August. Perennial. 



Ord. XXVI. Rosacea. — The Rose Family 



A large and important Order occurring in all parts of the world, 

 and comprising more than a thousand species of trees, shrubs, 

 and herbs. They mostly agree in having scattered, stipulate 

 leaves; polysymmetric and generally pentamerousyfczew.s - ; sepals 

 united, usually 5, the odd one being posterior, occasionally 4, 8, 

 or 10 ; petals 5, perigynous ; and stamens indefinite. In the 

 number of the carpels, their cohesion, and still more their 

 adhesion, and in the forms of fruit resulting from their fertilisation, 

 the members of the Order present great diversity ; so that, 

 natural as is the Order as a whole, it is subdivided, as naturally, 

 into seven tribes. The Pruneai are trees and shrubs of the 

 North Temperate Zone, the bark of which often exudes a some- 

 what insoluble gum ; the leaves are simple and, with the seeds^ 

 generally yield a considerable quantity of the deadly poison, 

 prussic or hydrocyanic acid ; and the fruit is a drupe or stone- 

 fruit, consisting, that is, of one carpel wilh a skin or epicarp, 

 flesh or mesocarp, stone or endocarp, and containing one kernel 



