35. 



OROBUS VARIUS. 



Party-coloured Bitter-Vetch. 



DiADELPHlA. DeCANDRIA. 



Class 17. Order 4. 



GENERIC CHARACTEH. 



Vide Orobus vernus. PI. 4. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTER. 



Leaves pinnate. Stipules half-arrow-shaped, entire. Stem winged. 



Stem herbaceous, rising from a foot to eighteen inches, much 

 bi'anched, the extremities freely producing flowers of different 

 shades of white, yellow, and red. The stem, from being winged 

 and so much branched, renders this plant easily distinguished 

 from either angustifolius or albus : the former of these, Linnaeus 

 seems to have confounded with this plant, which not only 

 differs as above, but in the stipules being broader. The 

 flowers appear in clusters of about six or eight : their calyx 

 red; standard crimson, faduig to a pale yellow; wings and 

 keel variegated with yellow and buff". 



The diversity of colour displayed by this little herbaceous 

 perennial is rarely met with in any other individual plant Its 

 delicacy requires it to be placed almost alone, in order that 



