The compound leaf is composed of 20 or more side leaflets, and terminates in a tendril; the leaflets are small and narrow, and are tipped with little needle-like bristles; the surface is finely downy. The leaves, on very short stems, are alternate and clasping by a pair of half-arrow-shaped wings. The color is grayish-green. The flower is small, and shaped like the bean blossom; its color is a fresh, light, bluish-violet tint, the broad upper petal being faintly lined with darker violet; the calyx is unequally 5-parted, and colored like the corolla. The flowers are densely crowded in long, one-sided curving spikes that grow from the angles of the leaves. The leafage of this plant affords a good example of the refined green generally found accompanying flowers of a blue or violet hue; its stalk is perhaps a little awkward in gesture, but not so the flexible curving flower-clusters. It grows in communities, and seen from a little distance forms a beautiful mass of blue. [Illustration: VETCH: Vicia Cracca.] *Wild Indigo.* _Baptisia tinctoria._ Found in dry sandy soil in uplands and light woods, blossoming in June and July. The round stalk, from 2 to 3 feet high, is tough-fibred, and extremely smooth; color, green. The leaf is divided into 3 small wedge-shaped leaflets, tapering at the base; it has an entire edge, a smooth and very fine surface, of a rich, dark gray-green color. The leaves are alternate, on very short foot-stems. The corolla of the small pea-shaped blossom is of a clear yellow color, with a light green calyx. The flowers, on short curved stems, grow along the ends of the branches, in slender, elongated clusters, or spires,--the clusters sometimes branch, and are sometimes leafy. Both the flower and leaf in withering turn black. The plant is attractive in its leafage, which is fine in quality and rich in color; when growing in the open it has a round, compact, bushy top, and a general air of trigness, often unnoted under less favorable conditions. [Illustration: WILD INDIGO: Baptisia tinctoria.] *Wild Senna.* _Cassia Marilandica._ Found in rich ground by the wayside, in July and August. The smooth, tough stalk, growing from 3 to 4 feet high, is light green in color. The compound leaf has from 6 to 9 pairs of narrow oblong leaflets; the midrib of each leaflet extends a little beyond the margin at the tip of the blade; the surface is smooth, and the texture firm and fine. The foot-stems of the leaves show the gland-like swellings frequently seen in members of this family. The leaves are alternate, and green in color, tending toward yellow-green, lighter beneath.