re 
LEGUMINIFER”. 89 
5 to 20 flowers in a short compact unilateral raceme. Pedicels 
nearly as long as the calyx-tube. Calyx slightly pubescent; the 
tube more convex on the upper than on the lower side; teeth 
unequal, triangular, the lowest one narrowest and longest, but 
shorter than the tube, the 2 upper ones nearly as long as broad. 
Standard three times as long as the calyx, not contracted above 
the middle. Pods spreading, stipitate on a gynophore longer than 
the calyx-tube, elliptical-oblong, compressed, acuminated at the 
apex into a sharp beak, smooth. Seeds “ ovoid, compressed, hilum 
equalling half the circumference of the seed.”—(Gr. & Godr.) 
In rocky woods, thickets, and pastures in hilly districts. Rare. 
In Somerset, Shropshire, Wales, Durham, the Lake district, the 
South of Scotland, Lanarkshire, and the Western Islands. I have 
seen it growing only on Braid Hills, near Edinburgh. 
England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Summer. 
Rootstock branched, many-headed, but without long creeping 
stolons as in the allied Continental species Vicia cassubica. Stem 
stout, curved near the base, then erect, 8 inches to 2 feet high, with 
the lowest leaves abortive, reduced to 2 or 3 acute leaflets, combined 
together with large somewhat scarious stipules. Leaves rather 
close together, with the leaflets $ to 1} inch long, variable in 
breadth, strongly veined beneath. Peduncles 2 to 4 inches long, 
bare of flowers for half to three-fourths of their length. Flowers 
much crowded, = inch long, whitish tinged with bluish-purple at 
thetip. Calyx-tube much bulged on the upper side ; the uppermost 
pair of teeth deltoid, one-third the length of the tube, the inter- 
mediate ones deltoid-triangular, about half the length of the tube, 
the lowest triangular and about two-thirds the length of the tube. 
Standard not excised beyond the middle, emarginate at the apex, 
where it is marked with purple veins, a little longer than the 
wings, which have remote purple veins, these again exceeding the 
keel, which is blotched with bluish-purple at the apex. Style 
with short hairs beneath the stigma all round. The ripe pods or 
seeds I have not seen; the immature pods are about 1 inch long, 
tapering slightly both towards the base and the apex, the latter 
terminates in a triangular acute beak, and is tipped by the remains 
of the style, which rises upwards at an obtuse angle. Plant pale 
bright-green, sparingly pubescent. 
Wood Bitter Vetch. 
French, Vesce Orobe. German, Schlingenlose Erve. 
VOL. III. N 
