OP ORNAMENTAL ANNUALS, 
117 
CHAPTER XXII. 
LEGUMINOSaE. 
Essential Character_ Calyx 5-cleft, or 5-toothed, or bilabiate. 
Petals usually 5, rarely fewer, papilionaceous, or unequal, seldom 
nearly equal, imbricate in activation, inserted in the bottom of the 
calyx, rarely in the torus. Stamens inserted with the petals, and 
generally twice their number, inonadelphous or diadelphous. Ovarium 
free, usually stipitate. Segments generally 2-valved, 1-celled, or 
transversely many-celled. Seeds fixed to the upper suture of the 
legume by funicles. Albumen none. Leaves usually alternate, 
variable, bistipulate. Flowers of various hues.-—(G. Don.) 
Description, &c. —The order Leguminosce is a very interesting one, from the great number of useful plants 
which it contains. The number of substances useful in medicine or the arts, which are produced from plants 
belonging to this order, is very great; and among them may be enumerated balsam of Tolu, gum arabic, liquorice, 
tamarinds, senna, logwood, and indigo. The ornamental trees and shrubs belonging to the order are also very 
numerous ; and among the trees may be mentioned the laburnum, the Judas tree, the Robinia or false acacia, and 
the true acacias ; while among the shrubs are the furze, the broom, the bladder-senna, and many others. 
Besides these plants, peas, beans, vetches, clover, trefoil, sainfoin, and lucerne, all belong to this important 
order. All these plants, various as they are, not only in their uses, but in many cases even in the form of their 
flowers, agree in the important point of bearing their seeds in pods or legumes, which is the circumstance that 
gives its name to the order; and this is the only point in which all the numerous plants belonging to it 
agree. 
The ornamental annual flowers belonging to Leguminosce are principally comprised in the genera Lupinus and 
Latkgrus; but there are garden annuals in almost all the genera in it which contain herbaceous plants, though some 
of those that were formerly favourites are now considered not worth cultivation, such as the different kinds of 
inedicago. M. sativa , the common lucerne, has a pretty purple flower; but the kinds with yellow flowers are 
generally not worth growing; of these, Medicago metadata is still to be found in nurserymen’s catalogues, under 
the name of Snails, the capsules bearing some resemblance to snail-shells; the flower is yellow, but very small 
and insignificant, and the leaves are small, and of a dingy yellowish green. Medicago minima is called hedge¬ 
hogs, and M. denticulata caterpillars, and both have nothing to recommend them, either in their flowers or leaves. 
All these kinds of Medicago are natives of Britain. Scorpiurus laevigata , and other species of the same genus, 
are also sometimes called caterpillars, and their capsules do bear a striking resemblance to those creatures; but 
the plants of the genus Scorpiurus are all natives of the Grecian Archipelago, and other parts of the south of 
Europe, and as their flowers are not remarkable for beauty, they are seldom grown in English gardens. Several 
kinds of Melilotus used formerly to be considered as garden flowers. One species of this genus, M. officinalis, 
is a native of Switzerland, and is well-known, from its flowers and seeds being the chief ingredients used in 
flavouring the Gruyere cheese. Some of the kinds of Trifolium (clover) were also grown in gardens. The 
crimson trefoil ( Trifolium incarnatum ) is very brilliant in its colour ; but its growth is too coarse and untidy 
to make it suitable for cultivation in a flower-garden. Among the number of flowers belonging to this order, 
which were formerly cultivated in gardens, may be mentioned the scarlet runner ( Phaseolus mulliflorus ), which 
is now only grown in our kitchen-gardens as a kind of kidney bean. This plant is found in all the lists of 
ornamental annuals from the time of its introduction in 1633, to the middle of the last century; and it was 
