LUPINE, Lupinus, L., a genus, of over eighty species, of the tribe Genistex of the order Leguminosae. Species with digitate leaves range along the west side of America from British Columbia to Bolivia, while a few occur in the Mediterranean regions. A few others with entire leaves are found in South Carolina, the Cape, and Cochin-China (DC., Prod, ii. p. 406; Benth. and Hook., Gen. Ρl., i. 480). The leaves are remarkable for “sleeping” in three different ways. From being in the form of a horizontal star by day, the leaflets either fall and form a hollow cone with their bases upwards (Z. pilosus'), or rise and the cone is inverted (Z. luteus), or else the shorter leaflets fall and the longer rise, and so together form a vertical star (many sp.); the object in every case being to protect the surfaces of the leaflets from radiation (Darwin, Movements of Pl., p. 340). The flowers are of the usual “papilionaceous” or pea-like form, blue, white, purple, or yellow, in long terminal spikes. The stamens are monadelphous and bear dimorphic anthers. The species of which earliest mention is made is probably L. Termis, Forsk., of Egypt. This is possibly the epe'/hvØos·of Homer {Il., xiii. 589). It is no longer found in Greece, but is extensively cultivated in Egypt. Its seeds are eaten by the poor after being steeped in water to remove their bitterness; the stems furnish fuel and the best charcoal for gunpowder (Pick., Chron. Hist, of Pl., 183). Two other species appear to have been cultivated by the ancients, L. sativus {albus, L.) allied to L. Termis, and L. hirsutus, L., this latter only about Sparta (Pick., l.c., p. 202); L. angustifolius, L., was a corn-field weed, the θlpgος άγριος of Dioscorides. The θepgoς ημepoς was used to counteract the effects of ...