LEGUMINOS^E 



LEGUMINOS^ PULSE FAMILY 



Vicia Cracca, L. 



Light-violet Cow Vetch, 



Tufted Vetch, 



June- August Blue Vetch, 



Bird Vetch, 

 Time Grass, 

 Cat Pea. 



Vicia: classical Latin name of Vetch. 



Cracca: classical name for some leguminous plant. 



THE PREFERRED HABITAT: dry, sandy soil. 



THE PLANT: climbing or trailing, two feet to four feet 

 long; the stems slender and weak, having fine, soft hairs 

 or being sometimes nearly smooth. 



THE LEAVES: alternate; pinnately-compound, with eight- 

 een to twenty-four leaflets, which are linear or linear- 

 oblong, thin, obtuse or obtusish at the apex, capped with 

 an abrupt tip, sessile; the whole leaf on an axillary stem, 

 which equals the leaves or is shorter than they. 



THE FLOWERS: in dense, spike-like racemes, which are 

 one inch to four inches long. 



THE FRUIT: a short-stalked, hairless pod, five to eight 

 seeded. 



A graceful plant that climbs by tendrils and is charac- 

 terized by a fine, downy hairiness on the grey stems, and 

 by olive-green compound leaves, which have twenty or 

 more lance-shaped leaflets, ending abruptly in a bristle- 

 like point. In their axils grow one-sided clusters of light 

 violet, slightly tubular flowers, of which the upper petal 

 is streaked with a deep violet. 



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