HORSESHOE VETCH 149 



a bee visitor as a long lever by which to raise this lid and then insert 

 its head beneath the vexillum, a procedure which leads to effectual 

 cross-pollination. It is visited by bees and Lepidoptera. 



The pod breaks up into several joints, which are dispersed with 

 the contained seeds to a short distance, aided by the wind, as the plant 

 is semi-erect in habit. 



It is one of the typical chalk plants needing a lime soil, which 



Photo. A. R. Horwood 



HORSESHOE VETCH (Hippocrepis comosa, L.) 



it obtains also from oolitic rocks. No fungi or insect pests infest this 

 plant. 



Hippocrepis, Linnaeus, is from the Greek hippos, horse, and crepis, 

 shoe, from the form of the joint, and comosa means hairy. 



The only common name is Horseshoe. It is called also " Unshoe 

 the Horse ", because its seeds resemble a horseshoe, and by Doctrine 

 of Signatures (!) it was therefore said to unshoe horses. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



87. Hippocrepis comosa, L. Stem branched, woody below, pro- 

 cumbent, leaves pinnate, leaflets narrow, obovate, 6-12, flowers yellow, 

 in umbels, 5-8, pod jointed, curved, like a horseshoe. 



