LEGUMINIFERZ. 103 
Stems several from the crown of the root, slightly curved at the 
base, then erect, rather stiff, 1 to 3 feet high, simple or slightly 
branched. Petioles 3 to 7 inches long, resembling blades of grass. 
Peduncles slender, 1 to 4 inches long, bearing rarely more than 1 
spreading flower. Flowers 4 to } inch long, bright-crimson with 
the keel paler. Calyx gibbous at the base above, the 3 lower teeth 
longer than the upper 2; standard with the lamina orbicular, 
spreading with the sides slightly reflexed, longer than the wings 
and keel. Pod slightly drooping, 13 to 23 inches long, about the 
thickness of a crow-quill, the sides with longitudinal anastomosing 
veins. Seeds maroon or reddish-black, roundish, compressed, 
slightly shining, covered with small tubercles; hilum oblong, one- 
ninth the circumference of the seed. Plant green, the leaves 
glaucous above. 
Before this plant comes into flower it is scarcely possible to 
detect it, from its close resemblance to the grasses among which it 
grows ; the petioles, however, do not sheathe the stem as the leaves 
of grasses do. 
Grass-leaved Vetch. 
French, Gesse sans Vrilles. German, Blattlose Platterbse. 
The specific name of this plant was given to it in honour of M. G. Nissole, a 
French botanist, whose zeal induced him to adopt the ingenious expedient of searching 
the siftings of grain imported from foreign parts, by growing which he obtained many 
curious exotics. The leaves of the plant are so like grass, that unless it be in blossom 
it may readily be overlooked and mistaken for it. 
Section ITJ.—EU-LATHYRUS. Seringe, in D. C. Prod. 
Petioles all bearing leaflets and terminating in tendrils. Calyx- 
tube gibbous at the base above. 
SPECIES III—LATHYRUS HIRSUTUS. Zinn. 
 -Prare CCOXCIX, 
Root annual. Stems weak, climbing or trailing, winged. 
Leaves with 2 or 4 pairs of elliptical or linear-elliptical leaflets, 
mucronate at the apex; common petiole terminating in a short 
branched tendril. Stipules rather small, half-sagittate. Peduncles 
longer than the leaves, generally 2- (but sometimes 1- or 3-) 
flowered. Calyx-teeth ovate-acuminate, as long as the tube. 
Corolla twice as long as the calyx. Pods oblong, compressed, 
Straight, hairy; the hairs with tubercles at the base. 
In bushy places and borders of fields. Very rare, and appa- 
rently confined to the southern part of the county of Essex, where 
it occurs in several places. I have only seen it at Hadleigh Castle, 
