(Plate CXXVI)

Family

Pulse.

Colour

Violet purple.

Odour

Scentless.

Range

A long the coast.

Time Of Bloom

Summer and early autumn.

Flowers: clustered on slender axillary peduncles. Calyx: of five unequal sepals. Corolla: showy; papilionaceous. Stamens: ten; united. Pistil: one. Pod: long; narrow. Leaves: divided into three to five pairs of oval, smooth leaflets; the common petiole ending in a tendril. Stem: stout; leafy.

Wending our way through the sand dunes that guard the approach to the seashore we pass the beach pea growing in low clumps. There is a healthy look about its soft green spotless leaves, and the varying tones of its purple flowers harmonise well with the white sand. We cannot help but fancy that it feels a subtle joy in its powers as it stretches out its firm tendrils to raise itself upward.