24 FLOWERS OF THE HILLS AND DRY PLACES 



Kidney Vetch is a lime-loving plant, being addicted to a lime soil, 

 growing as a rule on chalk or other calcareous rocks. 



This choice wild flower is infested by a cluster-cup fungus, Uromyces 

 anthyllidis. A beetle, Tychius scheideri; a butterfly (the Mazarine 

 Blue), a moth, Gelechia anthyllidella, and two Heteroptera, Lopus 

 sulcatus, Hoplomachus tkunbergi, feed on .it. 



Anthyllis, Dioscorides, is from the Greek anthos, flower, ioulos, 

 down, from the silky bristles of the calyx, and Vulneraria because it 

 was supposed to be a cure for wounds, from the Latin vulnus, wound. 



Names applied to this plant include Cats-claws, Crawnebs, Yellow 

 Crow's-foot, Jupiter's Beard, Kidney Vetch, Lady's Fingers, Luck, 

 Lamb's-toe, Staunch, Woundwort. 



Being named Our Lady's Fingers, it was connected with Scriptural 

 things. Gerarcle says it " shall prevayle much against the strangury 

 and the payne of the veynes ". It has been utilized as a yellow dye. 

 The excellence of South Down mutton has been ascribed to the preva- 

 lence of this plant in the pastures where sheep feed in the south, and 

 it is undoubtedly a good fodder plant. The colour of the flower varies 

 considerably according to the nature of the soil. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



83. AntJiyllis Vnlncraria, L. Stem erect, radical leaves simple, 

 oblong, upper pinnate, leaflets unequal, glaucous, terminal leaflet 

 largest, flowers yellow, in a dense head, two on each stalk, calyx in- 

 flated, woolly, bracts large. 



Yellow Mountain Oxytropis (Oxytropis campestris) 



There is no trace of this plant in early seed-bearing beds. It is 

 a member of the flora of the North Temperate and Arctic Zone, of 

 Arctic and Alpine Europe, Siberia, and America. In Great Britain it 

 is found in Forfar, E. Perth, at altitudes of 2000 ft. It is confined to 

 Scotland. 



The silky or Yellow Mountain Vetch is found only on the moist 

 mountain heights of Clova, where Oak-leaved Mountain Avens and 

 other plants, such as Yellow Balsam, Winter Green, Butterwort, and 

 other alpine or subalpine species, delight to grow. 



It has much the same habit as Astragalus, but the stems are 

 prostrate or the plant may have no aerial stem. The plant is silky or 

 softly hairy. The leaves have the leaflets arranged each side of a 

 common stalk, with lance-shaped acute leaflets, in about twelve pairs, 

 with a terminal leaflet exceeding the flowering stems. 



