86 ENGLISH BOTANY. 
which is in a continuous line with the pedicel and forms an obtuse 
angle upwards with that of the pod; upper and lower margins 
of the pod nearly parallel, rounded both at the base and the apex, 
the latter mucronate from the remains of the style: but this mucro 
is in the middle—not at the apex of the upper suture as in the last 
species, the surface glabrous in British specimens. Seeds dull- 
brown, or yellowish-olive marbled with black, the hilum about three 
times as long as broad. Plant pale greyish-green, sub-glabrous. 
Four-seeded Slender Tare. 
French, Vesee 2 quatre Graines. German, Viersamige Erve. 
SPECIES I1.—VICIA GRACILIS. Lois. 
Prate CCCLXXXIV. 
Bromfield, in Eng. Bot. Sup. No. 2904. Bab, Man. Brit. Bot. ed. v. p. 83. 
Vicia tetrasperma, var. ( gracilis, Hook, & Arn. Brit. Fl. ed. viii p. 114. Benth. 
Handbook Brit. Fl. p. 177. 
Ervum gracile, D.C. Koch, Syn. Fl. Germ, et Helv. ed. ii, p. 219. Gr. & Godr. Fi. 
de Fr. Vol. I. p. 475. Lowe, Man. Fl. Mad. p. 195. 
Annual. Leaves with 2 to 4 pairs of linear-strapshaped leaf- 
lets, abruptly acuminated and mucronate at the apex ; common 
petiole terminating in a simple or once-forked tendril. Lower 
stipules cleft into 2 lanceolate acute lobes, those of the upper leaves 
usually similar, more rarely entire. Peduncles longer than the leaves, 
1- to 7-flowered. Calyx-tube not gibbous on the upper side; teeth 
unequal, triangular, shorter than the calyx-tube. Flowers three 
times as long as the calyx. Pods spreading-reflexed, stipitate, 
cylindrical, scarcely compressed, rounded at the apex, where they 
are apiculate but not acuminated, usually glabrous. Seeds gene- 
rally 6, but varying from 4: to 7, globular, with the hilum roundish- 
oval, about one-twelfth the circumference of the seed. 
In cornfields and waste places. Rather rare, and apparently 
confined to the South of England. I have gathered it only in 
Essex, but specimens have been sent me from the counties of 
Dorset, Hants, and Cambridge, and it is reported on good authority 
from Kent, the neighbourhood of Bath, and county Kerry. 
England, Ireland. Annual. Spring to Autumn. 
Extremely like V. tefrasperma, on which account, no doubt, it 
is frequently overlooked, so that it appears to be scarcer than it really 
is. It is, however, a stouter plant, with fewer pairs of leaflets ; 
the leaflets longer, narrower, and decidedly acute; the peduncles 
much longer, the upper ones much exceeding the leaves from which 
