Plants, with goodly burden bowing.
And in and out among this luxuriant growth twist the slender stems of the ill-named hog pea-nut, its delicate lilac blossoms nodding from the coarse stalks of the golden-rods and iron-weeds or blending with the purple asters.
This plant bears flowers of two kinds: the upper ones are perfect, but apparently useless, as they seldom ripen fruit; while the lower or subterranean ones are without petals or attractiveness of appearance, but yield eventually at least one large ripe seed.
PLATE XCVI
INDIAN TOBACCO.—L. inflata.
Beach Pea.
Lathyrus maritimus. Pulse Family (p. [16]).
About one foot high, or more. Stem.—Stout. Leaves.—Divided into from three to five pairs of thick oblong leaflets. Flowers.—Papilionaceous, large, purple, clustered.
The deep-hued flowers of this stout plant are commonly found along the sand-hills of the seashore, and also on the shores of the Great Lakes, blooming in early summer. Both flowers and leaves are at once recognized as belonging to the Pulse family.
——— ———
Strophostyles angulosa. Pulse Family (p. [16]).
Stems.—Branched, one to six feet long, prostrate or climbing. Leaves.—Divided into three leaflets, which are more or less prominently lobed toward the base, the terminal two-lobed; or some or all without lobes. Flowers.—Purplish or greenish, on long flower-stalks. Pod.—Linear, straight, or nearly so.