282 DIADELPHIA— DECANDRIA. Vicia. 



palest in the variety /3. Fl. usually in pairs, on short, axillary, 

 downy stalks, inclining, often solitary. Cal. angular, a little 

 hairy, with taper teeth about the length of the tube. Pet. va- 

 riegated with shades of purplish crimson, with some blue and 

 white. Legumes erect, linear-lanceolate, 1^ inch long, flattish, 

 downy, with 9 or 10 orbicular, rather compressed, very smooth 

 seeds, usually dark brown, or blackish, but their colour is variable. 



The figure in Engl. Bot. t. 334, wanting the lower leaves, repre- 

 sents the usual wild state of this plant, intermediate between the 

 cultivated variety, a, and the starved narrow-leaved one, /3. 



As early fodder for cattle, the cultivated Vetch is in general use. Its 

 seeds are food for pigeons. 



4. V. angustifolla. Narrow-leaved Crimson Vetch. 



Flowers solitary, nearly sessile. Leaflets linear; lower ones 

 inversely heart-shaped. Stipulas with a pale depression 

 beneath. Seeds orbicular, smooth. 



V. angustifolia. Sihlh. 224} hul not of Roth, or Willdenow, or Ri- 



vinus. 

 V, sativay. Fl. Br.770. 



V. sylvestris, flore ruberrimo, siliqua long^ nigra. Rail Syn. 321. 

 V. lathyroides. Dicks. H. Sicc.fcisc. 4. 1 2. Hitds.3l9, /3, Fillars 



Dauph. V. 3. 452, from the author. 

 V. folio angustiore, flore rubro. Dill. Giss. app. 47. 



In grassy pastures, on a chalky or gravelly soil. 



On Shotover hill, Oxfordshire. Bobart. In Stow wood. Sibth. At 

 Weymouth. Sir T. G.Cullum, Bart. In Scotland. Mr. A.Bruce. 

 In Hyde Park. Dickson. Among short grass in Richmond gar- 

 dens. 



Annual? June. 



Root tapering, furnished with a few fleshy lateral tubercles ; 

 branching at the crown. Herb smaller than any variety of the 

 former, of a slender delicate habit, and distinguished by its very 

 conspicuous, elegant, crimson Jlowers, white at the keel and 

 lower edge of the wings, and rather large in proportion to the 

 other parts. The stems, mostly procumbent, are a span long, 

 unbranched, slender, striated, smooth. Tendrils with 2 or 3 

 capillary branches. Stipula.t small, but not always narrow, 

 smooth, sometimes toothed, their depressed mark rather pale 

 than blackish. Leaflets 6 or 7; those of the lower leaves short, 

 inversely heart-shaped ; of the upper ones oblong or linear, ab- 

 rupt, or acute, with a small point ; all clothed on both sides with 

 scattered silky hairs^ the longest scarcely exceeding half an inch. 

 Fl. 1 believe always solitary, those who describe them otherwise 

 having confounded this species with variety /3 of the last. Le- 

 gumes nearly upright, narrow, downy, finally blackish. Seeds 

 9 or 10, much like the preceding, but smaller. 



