lathyrus

[Lat. lathyros; Gr. lathyros =a kind of pulse: a vetchling.] Bot .: Everlasting Pea, Bitter Vetch, or Vetchling. A genus of Papilionaceous plants. It resembles Vicia, but has fewer leaflets, broader petals, an obliquely truncate staminal tube, and a style longitudinally flattened and bearded on the inner face. A hundred are known. The genus is divided into 2478 the sub-genera Aphaca, Ni olia, Lathyrus proper, and Orobus. Lathyrus pratensis , the Meadow Vetchling, a climbing plant, two or three feet long, with yellow flowers, is frequent. The roots of Lathyrus tuberosus are eatable. The seeds of L. aphaca can be eaten when green, but when ripe produce headache and are narcotic. Christ is on says that flour in which those of L. cicera have been ground is poisonous. L. sativus is used as green fodder for cattle in the North of India. It is said to produce paralysis in pigs. L. aphaca and L. i mph a lens is (Watt), are also used in India as fodder plants. Nearly sixty species of the genus are cultivated for their handsome flowers-yellow, red, scarlet, purple, and blue. The larger kinds are well adapted for arbors and shrubberies, but require branches for their support.