90 ENGLISH BOTANY. 
SPECIES VL—VICIA SYLVATICA. Linz. 
Puate CCCLXXXVII. 
Rootstock creeping. Stem weak, climbing or trailing. Leaves 
with 6 to 10 pairs of oval or broadly elliptical leaflets, rounded or 
truncate and mucronate at the apex ; common petiole terminating 
in a simple or branched tendril. Stipules half-lunate, laciniate, 
the upper ones half-sagittate, toothed only at the base. Peduncles 
equalling or exceeding the leaves, with 5 to 18 flowers in a lax uni- 
lateral raceme. Pedicels as long as the calyx-tube. Calyx glabrous, 
the tube more convex on the upper than on the lower side; teeth 
slightly unequal, triangular-subulate, the lowest one longest but 
shorter than the tube, the 2 upper ones similar to the others but 
a little shorter. Standard three times as long as the calyx, not con- 
tracted above the middle. Pods reflexed, stipitate on a gynophore 
longer than the calyx-tube, narrowly oblong or elliptical-oblong, 
compressed, acuminated at the apex into a rather long sharp beak, 
glabrous. Seeds globular, brownish, with the hilum linear, two- 
thirds the circumference of the seed. 
In woods and thickets, and on rocky banks, particularly in 
hilly districts. Rather rare, but widely distributed, extending 
from Somerset and the Isle of Wight to Aberdeenshire and Argyle- 
shire. 
England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Summer. 
Stems 2 to 4 feet long, more often trailing than climbing. The 
leaves on the short lateral branches frequently have the tendrils 
reduced to subulate points not much longer than those of V. Orobus. 
Leaflets thin in texture, { to 3 inch long, broader than those of the 
preceding species. Stipules very broad, palmately laciniate or 
deeply toothed, spreading or reflexed, the principal segments fre- 
quently tipped with purple. Peduncles 2 to 7 inches long, bare of 
flowers for about half their length. Flowers 3? inch long, white 
tinged with lilac. Standard gradually widened out towards the 
apex, which is veined with purple and scarcely notched; wings 
with a few purple veins; keel with a purplish blotch at the apex, 
the bend in the lower margin nearly a right angle, and the apex 
very broad, which makes the flowers considerably broader towards 
the apex than in the two preceding species, in which the angle is 
more obtuse. Style with short hairs all round underneath the 
stigma. Pods black or dark olive when ripe, 1 to 14 inch long, 
minutely shagreened all over, in a nearly continuous line with the 
gynophore, slightly curved upwards at the beak, which terminates 
