436 Mr. FoiisTER on the Vicia angustifolia 



It was ascertained b}' the examination of the herbarium, that 

 the Vicia lathyroides of Hudson was not the plant intended by 

 Linnaeus, which in the first edition of the Flora Anglica, pub- 

 lished in 1762, is referred to Ervum soloniense, and in the second 

 edition of 1778 is placed as a varietj'^ of Vicia lathyroides : this 

 was not improperly referred to Ervum soloniense, for it seems 

 that Ficia lathyroides and Ervum soloniense are the same plant, 

 (vide English Flora, vol. 3. p. 283.) Hudson's error consisted in 

 calling the Vicia sylvestris, sive Cracca major of Ray, Vicia lathy- 

 roides, and in his second edition placing the Vicia minima of 

 Rivinus, the true Linnaean V. lathyroides, as a variety. This 

 being the case, Smith in his Flora Britannica and in English 

 Botany published the, Vicia minima of Rivinus, Vicia minima 

 prcEcox Parisiensium of Dillenius in Ray's Synopsis, as the V. la- 

 thyroides of Linnaeus. So far he did well : but finding that Lin- 

 naeus in his Species Plantarum had placed the Vicia semine ro- 

 tunda nigro of Bauhin's Pinax, which is the Vicia sylvestris, sive 

 Cracca major of Ray, together with Vicia folio angustiore, Jlore 

 ruhro of Dillenius, as one varietj'^ of V. sativa, accompanied with 

 an observation, "Varietas /3. foliis angustioribus sublinearibus ;" 

 and also finding that the first of these is in the herbarium pinned 

 to the sativa, marked H. U. {Hortus Upsaliensis), he followed 

 his great master in continuing both these plants as varieties of 

 that species. Subsequently, however, he was induced by the 

 observations of the late Thomas Furly Forster " to re-examine 

 the matter;" and accordingly in the English Flora he has adopted 

 the Vicia sylvestris, Jlore ruberrimo, siliqua longa nigra of Ray, 

 or the Vicia folio angustiore, jlore ruhro of Dillenius, as a species, 

 under the name of Vicia angustifolia, stating it to be the V. an- 

 gustifolia of Sibthorp, but not of Roth, or Willdenow, or Rivi- 

 nus ; to this he was led by a specimen in his own herbarium, 

 received from Sibthorp, which specimen evidently is the Vicia 



sylvestris, 



