281 



lain and capricious in its stations. I am still more than half inclined 

 to regard it as a mere variety of the last, finding most of its charac- 

 ters prone to variation, but in deference to the opinions of others I 

 here keep it distinct. 



Vicia sylvatica. Woods, very rare ? Decidedly so in the Isle of 

 Wight, where this most elegant of our vetches may be seen in Luc- 

 combe Copse, by the road-side from Shanklin to Bonchurch, pro- 

 fusely investing the bushes with its festoons of gayest verdure, and 

 long clusters of " pale and azure pencilled flowers :" a spectacle most 

 delightful and refreshing to the eye of a southern botanist. It for- 

 merly grew at the entrance to Bonchurch, as I learn from my friend 

 Mr. Curtis, who has figured it from thence, but 1 cannot find it there 

 now. In a wood near the east turnpike at Appleshaw, Mr. Borrer in 

 Bot. Guide. I find it in the great wood there opposite the church, 

 and also at Redenham House, near the same place, in a wood, abun- 

 dantly ; it is, however, a scarce species in the south of England ge- 

 nerally, and I find it difficult to preserve for any length of time in a 

 garden, where for covering arbours it would be most desirable to pos- 

 sess it as a permanent inmate. 



Cracca and V. septum are abundant in woods and hedges 



all over the county and island. 



■ — sativa. This and its varieties, V. angustifolia and Bobartii, 



abound in meadows, fields, and by road-sides, in many parts of the 

 island, particularly on the green sand of the eastern side, as at San- 

 down, Shanklin, &c. 



lathy roides. In dry, sandy pastures, rare ? Banks in San- 

 down Bay, in considerable plenty, but its chief station on Royal 

 Heath is now destroyed by the late enclosures. 



Lathy rus Aphaca. Borders of fields and amongst corn ; very rare ? 

 Grassy bank in the glebe-field at West Meon, the Miss Sibley s, and 

 where I gathered fine specimens, in company with these ladies, in 

 June last. Not found hitherto in the Isle of Wight. 



Nissolia. By no means rare, and often abundant in cer- 

 tain years both in the island and on the main, but extremely capri- 

 cious in its times and places of appearance, and hardly possible to 

 preserve in cultivation. On grassy slopes above Sandown Bay I find 

 it not unfrequently, and a few years since it was profuse in the gra- 

 velly fields about Benbridge. In woods and thickets about Ryde, 

 &c. About West Meon with Lathyrus Aphaca it is very frequent, 

 but, as we have just seen, not constant companions; the Miss Sibleys!!! 



t? hirsutus. Open fields, excessively rare. A single spe- 



