PURPLE MILK VETCH 



Astragalus hypoglottis L. 

 PEA FAMILY 



This is one of the earlier and smaller of the milk vetches, of 

 which many different kinds grow in Western Canada. Its stems 

 are slender, rather weak, branched at the base, and from three to 

 eight inches high. The flower clusters resemble clover-heads, 

 while the leaves are reminiscent of those of the true vetch but 

 are without the tendril. The pods are short, thick, and hairy. 



The Purple Milk Vetch is common over a wide area, growing 

 in the open or on the edge of thickets, in a variety of soils. It 

 likes some moisture, and, among the grass in low meadows, 

 makes a thrifty growth like that shown, almost natural size, 

 in the picture; but the deep black loam of the prairie is for some 

 reason not congenial. It may be noticed, however, that, where 

 the grading of a road through such soil has in places removed 

 the top layer, exposing the hard, poor-looking subsoil, the Purple 

 Milk Vetch is often one of the plants that quickly and mysteriously 

 covers the naked earth with verdure. How do plants, strangers 

 to the immediate neighborhood, so promptly take possession? 

 To attempt a full explanation would take many pages, and be 

 beyond the scope of this little book. One is reminded of a sentence 

 by Oliver Wendell Homes 



"Nay, there are certain patches of ground, which, having 

 lain neglected for a time, Nature, who always has her pockets 

 full of seeds, and holes in all her pockets, has covered with hungry 

 plebian growths, which fight for life with each other, until some 

 of them get broad-leaved and succulent, and you have a coarse 

 vegetable tapestry which Raphael would not have disdained to 

 spread over the foreground of his masterpiece." 



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