100 ENGLISH BOTANY. 
late, the uppermost pair the shortest, about equal to the tube, the 
lower ones exceeding it. Standard glabrous, thrice as long as the 
calyx-tube, with the lamina oblong-oval. . Pods spreading, stipitate, 
with the gynophore much shorter than the calyx-tube ; compressed, 
acuminated at the apex into a rather long sharp beak, hooked 
downwards, sparingly clothed with short woolly hairs, with papillee 
or tubercles at their basis. Seeds sub-globular, compressed, indis- 
tinctly pitted ; hilum oval, one-sixth the circumference of the seed. 
Var. a, latifolius. 
Leaves oval or elliptical. All the stipules deeply toothed. 
Var. 2, angustifolius. 
Leaves strap-shaped, elliptical or linear, very acute; upper 
stipules sparingly toothed. 
On grassy banks, especially near the sea and on cliffs and bushy 
places. Very local. Reported from the counties of Devon, Somer- 
set, Dorset, Sussex, Kent, Essex, Gloucester, Worcester, Glamorgan, 
and Denbigh; but I have met with it myself only near Leigh, 
Essex, and between Folkestone and Sandgate, Kent; the broad- 
leaved plant I possess from several places near Bristol, Somerset, 
and from Budleigh Salterton, Devon. 
England. Annual. Spring to Autumn. 
Stems growing in tufts from the crown of the root, branched 
only at the base; 6 inches to 2 feet long. Leaflets 1 to 2 inches 
long, in var. « often 4 inch broad, but in var. 8 sometimes not 
more than $ inch. Peduncles + to 2 inches long, generally 1-flow- 
ered, but having sometimes a pair. Flowers # inch long. Standard 
pale dull-purple; wings white, with a blue blotch near the base. 
Pods 14 to 1} inch long, reddish-brown, varying to brownish- 
black when ripe; reticulated, faintly bossulated by the seeds. 
Seeds 4 inch in diameter, dull-brownish, sometimes marbled with 
black. Plant dull-green, slightly glaucous, glabrous or slightly 
pubescent. 
This plant has sometimes quite the habit of a Lathyrus, and 
has repeatedly been mistaken for Lathyrus hirsutus, but the wing- 
less stem, and the leaflets of the upper leaves more than one pair, 
as well as the shorter peduncles and longer and narrower flowers, 
furnish obvious distinctions, in addition to the difference of generic 
character. 
Bithynian Vetch. 
