100 



Descriptive Flora 



brandy, to make it more intoxicating: hence the name " mescal 

 beans " which was formerly applied to them." 



"In early days these beans were so highly valued by the 

 Indians of the Mexican border region that a string of them 6 feet 

 long would be accepted in barter for a pony. According to Dr. 

 Rothrock, who quotes Mr. Bellanger of Texas, 1 1 The Indians near 

 San Antonio used this bean as an intoxicant, half a bean pro- 

 ducing a delirious exhilaration followed by a sleep that lasts two 

 or three days : and it is asserted that a whole bean would kill a 

 man. ' ' 



The showy flowers are beautiful for decorating but are 

 seldom used as the heavy perfume produces headache and some- 

 times nausea. 



Sophora affinis Torr & Gray. Sophora. 



A shrub with long, drooping clusters of bonnet-shaped 

 flowers changing shades of pink and magenta. Leaves pinnately 

 compound, alternate. Leaflets 13 to 15. Fruit a conspicuously 

 beaded black pod with constriction between the seeds. Not com- 

 mon. 



Lupinus texensis Hook. Texas Blue-bonnet. Buffalo Clover. 



Lupine. 



This is the Texas State flower. Plants with palmately com- 

 pound leaves and elongated clusters of blue bonnet-shaped 

 flowers, each with a white or red blotch on the upper petal. 

 Leaflets 5 to 7, narrowed at each end. Flowers bonnet-shaped, 

 purplish-blue, rarely white, in few elongated, erect clusters. 

 Petals five, upper petal marked with a white blotch that turns 

 red with age. Pods erect, copiously silky-hairy, 1 to \y% long, 

 forming up the stem as the flowers continue to blossom. The 

 blue-bonnets grow singly or in patches often covering areas of an 

 acre or more. Prefers well drained rocky hillsides. The roots 

 of these plants are of interest through the nodules that form and 

 gather nitrogen from the air in the soil. This is apparently the 

 favorite flower of all Texans. 



