124 THE PEAFLOWER TRIBE. 
XVII. LATHYRUS. PEA. 
Herbs, with weak stems, sometimes climbing, and half-sagittate, or 
sagittate stipules ; the leaves usually pinnate, with few leaflets, larger 
than in Vicia, the common leafstalk ending in a simple or branched — 
tendril or in a small point, the leaflets sometimes wanting. Flowers 
solitary or in racemes, on axillary peduncles, purple, red, white, or 
bright yellow. Petals usually broad, especially the standard. Upper 
_ stamen free, or more frequently connected with the others, at least 
in the middle. Style flattened below the stigma, quite glabrous on the 
outer side, but more or less downy on the inner face for some way 
below the stigma. Pod cylindrical or flattened. Seeds several, 
usually globular or angular. 
A considerable genus, with the wide geographical range of Vicia, — 
differing from them chiefly by the fstyle, and in most cases by the 
fewer and larger leaflets and broader petals. The calyx is usually 
more oblique, the upper teeth shorter than the lower ones. Several 
species are very apt to dry black, which is seldom the case in Vicza. 
Leafstalks without real leafiets. 
Stipules large and leaf-like. Leafstalk a mere tendril. 
Flowers yellow 2. L. Aphaca. 
Stipules none. Leafstalk flattened, resembling a grass: leaf. 
Flowers pale red : : Spe) 
Leaves with one pair of leaslets. 
Annual, with small red flowers. Pods hairy sins Werk d . & LD. hirsutus. 
Perennial, with large red or purplish flowers. Pods glabrous. 
Rootstock tuberous. Stems not winged ee . 5. DL. tuberosus. 
Rootstock without tubers. Stems winged . . 6. L. sylvestris. 
Perennial, with yellow flowers. Pods clabrous 4. L. pratensis. 
Leaves with two or more pairs of ake 
Stipules deeply divided : ‘ . Vicia bithynica. 
Stipules entire. 
Leafstalk ending in a simple or branched tendril. 
. L. Nissolia. 
Leaflets lanceolate. Stipules narrow, half-sagittate . 7. D. palustris. 
Leaflets ovate or elliptical. suipules hi lar ze, broadly ovate, 
sagittate . , : : . 8 L. maritimus. 
Leaflets ending i in a short fine ‘point. 
Leaflets 2 or 3 pairs, rarely 4 pairs, lanceolate or linear . 9. LZ. macrorrhizus. 
Leaflets 5 or 6 pairs, rarely 4 pairs, ovate . : ‘ . 10. L. niger. 
The Sicilian sweet Pea, the Tangiers Pea, the South American Anson’s 
Pea, and some other exotic species of Lathyrus, are cultivated in our 
flower-gardens, ‘The Pea of our kitchen-gardens and fields is usually 
distinguished as a genus, under the name of Piswm, but upon char- 
acters which are hardly sufficient for the separation of a solitary 
species. 
1. L. Nissolia, Linn. (fig. 288). Grass Vetchling.—An erect, gla- 
brous annual, branching from the base, about a foot high. Leaves all 
reduced to a long, linear, grass-like, flattened leafstalk, ending in a 
fine point, without leaflets or stipules. Peduncles long, bearing imme- 
diately below their summit 1 or rarely 2 small pale red i Pod 
long, narrow, and straight. 
In bushy places, grassy borders of fields, and stony pastures in central 
and southern Europe to the Caucasus, but not extending into northern 
Germany. In Britain, spread over central and southern England, but 
rare and not known in Ireland or Scotland. Fl. early swmmer. 
_ 2, L. Aphaca,-Linn. (fig. 289). Yellow Vetchling.—A weak, branch- 
ing, glabrous annual, about a foot long, without real leaflets, but the — 
