46. Schrankia. Petals united below into a cup. Stamens 8 or 10. Pod covered with small prickles or rough projections.
1. BAPTÍSIA, Vent. False Indigo.
Calyx 4–5-toothed. Standard not longer than the wings, its sides reflexed; keel-petals nearly separate, and, like the wings, straight. Stamens 10, distinct. Pod stalked in the persistent calyx, roundish or oblong, inflated, pointed, many seeded.—Perennial herbs, with palmately 3-foliolate (rarely simple) leaves, which generally blacken in drying, and racemed flowers. (Named from βαπτίζω, to dye, from the economical use of some species, which yield a poor indigo.)
[*] Racemes many, short and loose, terminal, often leafy at base, flowers yellow.
1. B. tinctòria, R. Br. (Wild Indigo.) Smooth and slender (2–3° high), rather glaucous; leaves almost sessile, leaflets rounded wedge-obovate (½–1½´ long), stipules and bracts minute and deciduous, pods oval-globose, on a stalk longer than the calyx.—Sandy dry soil, N. Eng. to Fla., west to Minn. and La.
[*][*] Racemes fewer, opposite the leaves.
[+] Flowers yellow.
2. B. villòsa, Ell. Sometimes soft-hairy, usually minutely pubescent when young, erect (2–3° high) with divergent branches; leaves almost sessile, leaflets wedge-lanceolate or obovate, lower stipules lanceolate and persistent, on the branchlets often small and subulate, racemes many-flowered; pedicels short; bracts subulate, mostly deciduous; pods ovoid-oblong and taper-pointed, minutely pubescent.—Va. to N. C. and Ark.
[+][+] Flowers white or cream-color.
3. B. leucophæ̀a, Nutt. Hairy, low (1° high), with divergent branches; leaves almost sessile, leaflets narrowly oblong-obovate or spatulate; stipules and bracts large and leafy, persistent; racemes long (often 1°), reclined; flowers on elongated pedicels, cream-color; pods pointed at both ends, hoary.—Mich. to Minn., south to Tex. April, May.