94 FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS. 



tember, and October, and occasional specimens have been 

 met with even so late in the year as the middle of No- 

 vember. All these dates are, we need scarcely say, open to 

 correction, according to locality. Marlborough, in Wilt- 

 shire, where these observations were made, stands on an 

 elevated plateau of chalk, and suffers, therefore, both from 

 the drought and glare of summer, and the chill winds 

 of winter, more than many other places ; and in a 

 sheltered valley not more than seven miles away, Pewsey 

 Vale, almost all our wild plants are a full week earlier 

 in their appeai'ance than on the higher ground. The 

 botanical name is Vicia sepinm. The generic name is, 

 according to some authorities, derived from the Celtic 

 gwig, the name of this or some kindred plant ; though, 

 its Latin name being vicia, this derivation seems some- 

 what needlessly far-fetched. The English name vetch, 

 like the French vesce, and the German wichen, is but a 

 corruption of this. The plant is also sometimes called 

 the tare, and in some of the early English writers 

 we meet with a combination or amalgamation of its two 

 familiar names, as it is in old books oftentimes called 

 the tarefitch. This must not for a moment be con- 

 fused with the tares mentioned in the Biblical parable. 

 The tares of Palestine bear so close a resemblance to 

 the earlier growth of the barley or wheat that it is prac- 

 tically impossible until the grain is in the ear to dis- 

 tinguish the true from the counterfeit, hence the force 

 of the command of the husbandman, " Let both grow 

 together until the time of harvest." The specific name 

 of the bush vetch simply means " of the hedges/' sepes 

 being the Latin word for a hedge. The plant is a 

 perennial; the stems are from one to two feet high, 



