198 LEGUMINOS^ 



nature, so strikingly lovely, though," adds this botanist, " had it been in the 

 power of any person to have informed me that some oi-namenter of wilds 

 had been profusely sowing the plant in the wood, my pleasure would have 

 been much abated ; nor could I in that case have concluded that a calcareous 

 soil was the natural home of the plants." We share with Mr. Lees in his 

 dislike of the practice of scattering the seeds of exotic plants among the wild 

 woods and rocks. In the progress of man's mechanical skill, we shall soon 

 have little left to us of the true country ; we would fain preserve its wild 

 flowers in all their native beauty, unmingled. The garden, the plantation, 

 and the pleasure-ground, are, as Mr. Lees remarks, the proper places for 

 man's sportive and improving hand. Many of our wild plants have been, 

 and deserve to be, admitted within its inclosure. The Rev. W. T. Bree 

 asks of this Wood-vetch, " Why is not this beautiful climber, certainly one 

 of the most charming and elegant of oiu" native plants, more frequently 

 cultivated in the garden ? Is it on account of any peculiarity of the soil 

 which it requires 1 or the difficulty of making it succeed in a state of cultiva- 

 tion 1 It generally prefers a chalky or calcareous soil ; thus I have observed 

 it in beautiful luxuriance in the neighbourhood of Clifton and Bristol, also 

 in the vicinity of Oxford, and lately near Dover. But it also occasionally 

 occurs in a light sandy soil, as in Bentley Park, near Atherstone, in Warwick- 

 shire. I have more than once sown the seeds in the garden, and seldom 

 succeeded in making them come up, or at least raising them to perfection. 

 What is the cause of the failure ?" 



This is a valuable herbage plant, furnishing by its bulk a large amount 

 of food, which is very nutritive. Many agriculturists have recommended 

 that it should be sown in fields ; but Mr. Curtis was of opinion, that if culti- 

 vated alone, the plants would become entangled and perish for want of support. 



2. Tufted Vetch {K crdcca). — Flower-stalks elongated, many-flowered; 



leaves of about ten pairs ; leaflets lanceolate, with spiny point, silky ; stipules 



entire, half arrow-shaped ; calyx-teeth shorter than their tube ; pods linear, 



oblong, smooth. Plant perennial. During the months of July and August, 



the handsome crowded spikes of the Tufted Vetch climb to the topmost 



bough of the hedge, or droop down in luxuriance among the branches of the 



wood. They are of a rich purplish-blue, the flowers all turning one way, 



and the spikes often two or three inches long. The lover of flowers is glad 



to see this lovely Vetch, clinging to the hedges by the meadow; and the 



farmer welcomes it there too, knowing that it affords a large amount of 



fodder to the animals grazing on its pasture. Dr. Plot, in his " History of 



Staffordshire," says of this nutritious plant, and the Viria sylvatica, that they 



"advance starven or weak cattle above anything yet knowne." Its culture 



has been often recommended. It might have been this flower to which 



Charlotte Smith alludes in the lines which so well describe the summer 



hedge : — 



*' An e<arly worshipper at Nature's shrine, 

 I loved her rudest scenes — warrens and heaths, 

 And yellow commons, and birch-shaded hollows, 

 And hedgerows bordering unfrequented lanes ; 

 Bower'd with wild roses, and the clasping woodbine, 

 Where purple tassels of the tangling Vetch 

 "With bittersweet, and bryony inweave." 



