CO FAMILIAR WILD FL01FERS. 



the open waste. The flowering rush, the arrowhead, 

 the white and yellow water-lilies, are the treasures of the 

 stream ; the bleak sea-beach has no less its special plants 

 the purple sea-lavender, the crimson thrift, the golden 

 blossoms and long waving pods of the horned poppy, the 

 quaint foliage of the sea-holly. In like manner our woods 

 and forests have their characteristic blossoms the golden 

 daffodils, the purple hyacinths, and many others : the 

 wood-vetch, the plant represented, is one of these. 



Though in some places common enough, it is one of 

 our more local plants, as it has nothing like the universal 

 range of many of our flowers. It is more especially a 

 northern plant, and seems to delight particulaily in open 

 woods on the mountain-sides. It is not at all an un- 

 common plant in Scotland and the northern counties of 

 England, and it also occurs from time to time in hilly 

 and woodland districts in many other parts of England. 

 The specimen from which our illustration was copied was 

 found in a wood in Wiltshire, where it may be met with in 

 abundance, and it has even been found in a locality so far 

 removed from the district of its especial choice as Kent. 

 Wherever found, it is always, however, what if we may 

 borrow a term from our railway engineers we may call a 

 " high-level " plant. 



The wood- vetch is a very striking and handsome-look- 

 ing plant when found under favourable conditions. It 

 frequently attains to a height of some five or six feet, 

 or even more, its long stems trailing over the bushes and 

 undergrowth, climbing and supporting themselves by 

 means of the long and branching tendrils with which they 

 are abundantly furnished. The form of the leaf is similar 

 to that of the tufted vetch ( Vicia cracca) and other equally 



