HORTUS GRAMINEUS WOBURN EN SIS. 133 



VIC I A sepium. Bush Vetch.* 



Specific charade?' : Legumes pedicelled, mostly four toge- 

 ther, erect, smooth ; leaflets ovate, obtuse, the outer 

 one smaller. 



Obs. — Stems climbing by tendrils, from one to two feet 

 high, according to its place of growth, grooved. Leaves 

 many-paired, terminated by a branching tendril. Leaf- 

 lets ovate, obtuse, sometimes emarginate, somewhat 

 hairy, the outer ones gradually smaller. Flowers com- 

 monly in fours, on very short pedicles, all directed one 

 way, dark blue, purple. Legume or pod nearly erect, 

 brown, dotted, smooth. Seeds globular, even. Native 

 of Britain. Root perennial. 



Experiments. — The produce on the sixteenth of April from 

 a brown sandy loam, with manure, is 5,445 lbs. per 

 acre. 



The produce of latter-math is 6,806 lbs. per acre. 



In the Memoirs of the Bath Agricultural Society, the 

 Rev. G. Swayne informs us, that the bush vetch " shoots 

 earlier in the spring than any other plant eaten by cattle ; 

 vegetates late in the autumn, and continues green all winter. 

 But it is difficult to collect the seeds, as the pods burst and 

 scatter them about, and, moreover, hardly a third part of 

 them will vegetate, being made the nidus of an insect. A 

 patch sown in drills in a garden was cut five times in the 

 course of the second year, and produced at the rate of 

 twenty-four tons on an acre, of green food ; and when dry 

 would weigh nearly four tons and a half." The nutritive matter 

 of this vetch consists almost entirely of mucilage and sugar; 

 the bitter extractive principle which exists in the nutritive 

 matter of the leaves of all grasses is here in a less proportion. 

 The produce in these experiments is less than that obtained 

 by Mr. Swayne, but the difference is to be accounted for 

 from the different soils employed. The plant attains to a 

 considerable height when connected with bushes, and evi- 

 dently prefers shady situations. But the produce, as shown 

 above, on a middling soil, in an exposed situation, is very 



