(A) Wild Indigo (Baptisia tinctoria ) is a very 
branchy and very bushy herb. The stem divides soon 
after it leaves the ground, the slender branchlets ex¬ 
tending equally in all directions. The leaves are three- 
parted, wedge-shaped, dull green with a white bloom 
that gives them a bluish-green appearance. The yellow, 
butterfly-shaped flowers are in loose clusters at the ends 
of all the branches. 
The roots of Wild Indigo are used by drug concerns 
for the compounding of a number of medicines. An 
indigo dye, of a poor quality, can also be made from the 
plant. Wild Indigo grows in dry or sandy soil from 
Maine to Minnesota, flowering from June to September. 
(B) Battlebox (Grotalaria sagittalis ) receives its 
name because the seeds rattle about in the large, in¬ 
flated, blackish, seed-pod. It is an annual herb, with a 
hairy, bending stem and stemless, toothless, pointed-oval 
leaves alternating along it. The yellow, pea-like flowers 
are in small clusters at the ends of the branches. It is 
found in sandy soil, chiefly along the coast, from Mass, 
to Fla. and Texas and, in the Mississippi basin, to In¬ 
diana and South Dakota. 
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