Coi.oRADo Plants Injurious to Livestock 
arising approximately from the same region on the stem. The small, 
spherical fruit has a light red color. 
In Colorado, wild red cherry occurs along streams and on hillsides. 
It seems to be found only in the eastern half of the state, on plains 
and in the foothills. 
Sand Cherry (Pruniis besseyi) (fig. 44). The sand cherry is a 
low, often prostrate shrub, frequently but a few feet high. The leaves 
are thick, elliptic and toothed along the margin. The fruit is quite 
large, reddish-yellow in color. The sand cherry belongs to the plains 
of eastern Colorado, growing in dry, sandy and stony localities. 
Poisoning by wild cherry. —The partially wilted branches of wild 
cherry are poisonous for cattle. The poison is prussic or hydrocyanic 
acid. The eating of the plant at the particular time when conditions 
are right for poisoning is not common. The symptoms and treatment 
for poi.soning by foods that develop prussic acid wdll be found in 
connection with the discussion of sorghums. 
PEA FAMILY (Legumes) 
Before taking up a discussion of lupine and the locos, it will be 
well to give some general characteristics of the family of plants to 
which they belong. All members of the pea family are popularly 
known as “legumes.” To this group belong such well-known plants 
as peas, beans, alfalfa, vetch, clover, cow-pea, sweet clovers, peanut, 
wild liquorice, buck bean, lupine and locos. Probably no family of 
plants is of greater agricultural importance, except it is the grass 
family. In addition to the important forage and human food value 
of members of the pea family, they have an important relation to soil 
fertility. Bacterial nodules are formed on the roots, and through the 
action of these and other soil bacteria, the soil is enriched in nitrates. 
For this reason, legumes are regularly employed as rotation crops 
with cereals and root crops. The flower of all legumes is character¬ 
istic. The accompanying figures are intended to make its structure 
clear. An examination of the flower cuf the alfalfa, pea or loco will, 
with the aid of fio-ures .40 and h^^ln one to e'et the pea tvpe of 
flower fixed in mind. There are 5 greenish structures (sepals), at 
the base of the flower. They nartially enclose the colored oarts (co¬ 
rolla) of the flower. There are four main parts to the corolla of the 
fiow^er: a broad upper one (banner or standard), two wings, one on 
each side, and a lower structure shaped like the keel of a boat, and 
called the ^Leelf’ The keel is really composed of two petals which 
are united along the middle line of the keel. It encloses the stamens, 
which produce the pollen, and also the ovary, which develops 
into the pod. The fruit of all peas is a pod or “legume.” It consists 
of two halves which split apart (fig. 47) at maturity along their edges, 
d'here mav be one or more seeds in a pod. For example, in the twisted 
pod of alfalfa there may be but one seed, while in the bean or pea 
there are several seeds. The leaves of all members of the pea family 
are divided into a number of divisions; that is, they are compound. 
And, at the base of the leaf-stalk, where it joins the stem, are almost 
always two small leaf-life structures, the stipules (fig. 46). 
