• of the English Flora of Sir J. E. Smith. 437 



sylvestris, fore ruberrimo, siliqua longa nigra ; but it may be 

 doubted whether Sibthorp distinguished the two plants ; for his 

 specific character, as well as his reference to Roth and Rivinus, 

 belong to one, and the synonyms of Ray and Hudson to the 

 other. We still, however, unfortunately find the Vicia sylvestris, 

 sive Cracca major remaining in the English Flora as a variety of 

 f^. sativa. 



Having continued to pay attention to this subject ever since 

 the separation of the true Linnaean V. lathyroides from that of 

 Hudson, I have remained steady in my opinion, that the V. sa- 

 tiva fi. of Linnaeus and Smith is specifically distinct from the 

 cultivated Vetch, though I allow their great affinity. 



Having an opportunity of examining the truly invaluable her- 

 barium now deposited in the Museum of this Society, I conceive 

 with Professor Hooker, that it must be satisfactory to the British 

 botanist to know what is the Vicia angustifolia of the English 

 Flora, and therefore I have been induced to make these obser- 

 vations and to submit the following arrangement, though in so 

 doing I stand opposed to Linnaeus, Smith, and Hooker ; yet I 

 feel confident, supported as I am by the accurate Ray, the labo- 

 rious Hudson, together with Roth, and a host of authors ancient 

 and modern : indeed, I have in some measure the sanction of 

 my friend Borrer, who, by presenting the Vicia, n. 2614. of 

 English Botany to be figured as V. angustifolia, clearly takes it 

 away from V. sativa, though he was not aware that it is not the 

 V. angustifolia of the English Flora, but the V. sativa ^. of that 

 work, and the V. angustifolia of Roth and Willdenow. 



It being an invariable maxim with me never to swerve from 

 the good practice of keeping the trivial name of the first author 

 who established the species, since the reformation of the bota- 

 nical nomenclature by Linnaeus, I am reluctantly obliged to 

 adopt that of angustifolia from Roth, and therefore to give some 



other 



