76 ENGLISH BOTANY. 
by roadsides. Not very common, and principally confined to the 
South and East of the island; extending from Cornwall and Devon 
along the South coast to Kent, and thence northward to Aberdeen, 
Moray, and Ross. On the West coast it occurs wild in North 
Wales, the basin of the Mersey, and Kirkcudbrightshire. 
England, Scotland. Perennial. Summer and Autumn. 
Stems few, nearly simple, flexuous, 1 to 3 feet long, generally 
trailing. Leaves 4 to 8 inches long; leaflets # to 13 inch long, 
obtuse or slightly acute at the apex, glabrous above, apparently so 
beneath, but when examined under a lens they will be found to 
be clothed with distant extremely short white hairs. Lower stipules 
ovate, auriculate ; upper ones lanceolate, not united to each other. 
Flowers very numerous, + inch long, cream-coloured. Pods 1 to 
13 inch long, crescent-shaped, pale-olive when ripe, with the surface 
finely reticulated and clothed with short distant hairs invisible to 
the naked eye. Plant pea-green. Leaflets very thin and glaucous 
beneath ; the leaves, as remarked by Dr. Bromfield, resembling 
those of Robinia Pseud-acacia, the tree commonly cultivated in 
gardens under the name of Acacia or Locust-tree. 
Sweet Milk-Vetch, Liquorice Vetch. 
French, Astragale Réglisse. German, Sussholzblattrige Bdérenschote. 
This plant is sometimes called Ladies’-fingers or Crow-toes, from its fancied resem- 
blance to the fingers of an open hand. The English name of Milk-Vetch is derived 
from its supposed quality of increasing the quantity of milk in cows fed on it. We 
find Gerarde, after enumerating the virtues of the plant in healing diseases, says: “ It 
likewise procureth great store of milke in cattell that do eat thereof, whence it took 
his name.” He adds : “ It stoppeth bleeding, but is with much ado beaten, by reason of 
his hardnesse.” 
It grows on the poorest soils, even on obdurate clays, where scarcely any other 
plant will vegetate. It will grow as tall as clover, and makes very good hay, though 
scarcely attaining perfection for the first few years. When fully established, it pro- 
duces a large supply of fodder, and is very desirable for poor lands ; but after being once 
cut advances very slowly ; hence its inferiority to clover as a fodder-plant. 
Tripe I1.—HEDYSARESA. 
Stamens diadelphous, the uppermost free from the other 9. 
Pod divided by transverse partitions into 1-seeded portions, which 
most frequently separate from each other; more rarely reduced 
to one of these portions. Cotyledons changing into green leaves 
during. germination. Stem not climbing or twining. Leaves 
pinnate or pinnately-trifoliate, with a terminal leaflet. Leaflets 
sometimes with stipels. 
