RABBITBEAN 



Cracca virginiana Linnaeus 



The gray-green foliage of the rabbitbean makes a delightful back- 

 ground for its straw-colored, pea-shaped flowers, touched with red, and 

 crowded at the end of a stiff stem. The plant blooms in early summer 

 and is to be found in dry, sandy, acid soil. Should you wish to gather 

 a bunch, you will find the stems and the unusually long roots sur- 

 prisingly tough, and a serviceable substitute for twine, if necessity 

 demands. It is, indeed, commonly known in the South as devil's shoe- 

 string. 



The seeds are in bean-shaped pods, which are frequently rifled by 

 weevils, so that few^ of them ever reach maturity. 



The Indians used a tropical American species of this genus as fish 

 poison in the same manner in which they employed many other plants, 

 throwing the macerated stems into quiet streams or ponds, with the 

 result that the fish became stupefied and floated on the surface of the 

 w^ater, so that they were easily taken. 



Rabbitbean ranges from Texas to Florida and northward to Mani- 

 toba and Ontario. 



The specimen sketched was collected near Washington, District of 

 Columbia. 



PLATE 44 



