152 FLOWERS OF THE ROADSIDES AND HEDGES 



A good drawing charcoal is also derived from it. It yields a good 

 yellow dye, and, with alum added, a green dye. In Germany they 

 bore the young shoots to make pipe-stems of them. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



73. Euonymus europteus, L. Shrub, branches quadrangular, leaves 

 lanceolate, opposite, serrate, flowers white or green, in umbels, 

 peduncles axillary, capsule with an arillus, scarlet, obtusely angular, 

 or lobed. 



Tufted Vetch (Vicia Cracca, L.) 



Tufted Vetch appears to-day (not earlier than the present epoch) 

 in the Northern Temperate and Arctic Zones, in Arctic Europe, N. 

 Africa, N. and W. Asia, India, and Greenland. It is ubiquitous in 

 Great Britain, ranging as far north as the Shetlands, and in the 

 Highlands it is found at altitudes of 2400 ft. It is a native of Ireland 

 and the Channel Islands. 



The common Vetch or Tare is a familiar feature of our hedgerows 

 and lanes in the early summer, seeking the support of some stronger 

 upright plant. It is associated with Bryony, Red Campion, Welted 

 Thistle, various brambles, and other hedgerow bushes, scrambling 

 over them profusely in wild disorder. 



The Tufted Vetch has the climbing habit. The plant is downy 

 or silky. The rootstock is creeping. The stem is angled, spreading. 

 The leaves are stalkless, pinnate, with leaflets each side of a common 

 stalk. The leaflets are linear, oblong or lance-shaped, acute, or with 

 a blunt point, in 10 pairs, silky. The stipules are half arrow-shaped, 

 entire or nearly so. The tendrils are branched. 



The flowers are 10-30, in dense racemes arranged one side of the 

 stalk, blue or purple. The flower-stalk is longer than the leaves. The 

 ultimate stalks are short. The flow r ers are drooping. The tube of the 

 calyx is short, swollen below, the teeth shorter than the tube, the upper 

 pair very small, the others awl-like. The standard is wavy at the side, 

 the limb short. The style is equally downy all round at the top, the 

 hairs longer below the stalked stigma. 



The pods are not bearded, linear to oblong, smooth, obliquely blunt, 

 beaked, many-seeded. The seeds are nearly round, black. The hilum 

 is linear and extends half-way round the seed. 



The plant is 3-6 ft. high. The flowers are in bloom during June, 

 July, and August. The plant is perennial. 



The flowers are numerous, brilliant in colour, and conspicuous. 

 The anthers ripen before the stigma. The short style is \\ mm. long, 



