Lathyrus

(lah-thi'rūs.) (Bot.) A gen of plants, O. Fabaceæ, chiefly found in temperate climates. They are herbs with weak stems, sometimes climbing, the leaves usually pinnate, with fewer and larger leaflets than in the vetches, and often only one pair or even none at all, the common stalk always ending in a point or a tendril. The flowers are solitary or in racemes, purple, red, blue, white, or bright yellow, and often very handsome. L. odoratus, the Sweet Pea, and L. latifolius, the Everlasting Pea, and other species, are cultivated in flower-gardens. [s. 529]