I08 LEGUMINOS.^. 



somest of the group. It grows from i to 2 feet high, the 

 stems being crowded with leaves, which are composed of from 

 three to five pairs of leaflets, milky green on the under side. 

 The flowers, produced in rather dense racemes, freely from 

 June till the end of July, are pale yellow. Native of Siberia. 



0. niger {Black Bitter Vetch). — This is an indigenous species, 

 but rare, though abundant in most countries of central and 

 southern Europe. It grows from i foot to 2)4 feet high, and 

 at the greater height becomes rather a straggling plant. The 

 leaves are composed of from four to six pairs of oval dark-green 

 leaflets. The flowers, in short loose racemes, are dullish 

 purple. They open in June and July. 



0. variegatus ( Va7-iegated Bitter Vetch). — This is a fine com- 

 pact species, with erect habit, producing its leaflets in two or 

 three pairs to the stalk , they are egg-shaped, and have three 

 rather conspicuous longitudinal veins. The flowers are beauti- 

 fully variegated, rose, crimson, and blue, and are produced in 

 dense racemes, which appear in May and June. Height about 

 I foot. Native of Italy and its islands. 



0. vernus {Spri?ig Bitter Vetch). — This species is very near 

 in habit of growth and general aspect to the last, and about the 

 same in height. The leaves are composed of two or three 

 pairs of oval sharply-pointed leaflets, bright green, and distinctly 

 three-veined. The racemes of flowers are loose and rather 

 one-sided, and the flowers are bright reddish purple, and appear 

 in April and May. It is one of the choicest plants of its 

 period. Native of France, Germany, and Italy. 



Oxytropis. — This genus is nearly related to Astragalus, and 

 resembles, in such species as we have in cultivation, some of 

 the dwarf sorts of that family. It is not a small family, com- 

 prising, as it does, twenty or thirty species ; but they are not 

 common in gardens, two or three species being the utmost to 

 be met with in even extensive botanical collections. They are 

 not showy plants, but interesting and pretty, and are best 

 adapted for rockwork culture in rather dry sandy soil. They 

 are propagated by division in early autumn, and by seed in 

 spring, in pots or in the open ground. 



0. campestris, syn. Astragalus campestris {Field O.) — This 

 is a very local British plant, being found only on the Clova 

 mountains in Aberdeenshire, but is frequent in upland pastures 

 and gravelly and rocky places in the mountain-ranges of Eu- 

 rope, western Asia, and North America. The plant is dwarf, 

 almost stemless, producing tufts of long pinnate leaves, com- 

 posed of twenty or thirty lance-shaped leaflets, clothed with long 

 silky hairs. The flower-stalks are about the same length as 



