88 IEGUMINOS2E. 



flowers are greenish-white, and grow in a large cluster ; its 

 stalks are sweet, with the flavour of liquorice, and children 

 like to nibble them. It grows abundantly about Frome, in 

 Somersetshire, but I made my first acquaintance with it in the 

 woods of Switzerland. 



The sandy pastures about Redcar produce the Purple Milk 

 Vetch (A. hypoglottis, Plate VI., fig. 9). It has a large cluster 

 of purple flowers, nearly as big as the rest of the planti The 

 leaves are pinnate, the leaflets small, but very numerous. 



"We come next to the true Vetches. The most beautiful of 

 them, the Wood Vetch (Vicia sylvatica, Plate VI. , fig. 10), 

 grows in the hilly parts of Yorkshire and Herefordshire. By 

 means of its delicate tendrils it climbs the bushes as high 

 as six or seven feet, and from thence its light graceful foliage, 

 and large clusters of pale, purple-striped flowers, hang in 

 elegant festoons. It blooms late in the summer. 



The Tufted Vetch (V. cracca), is the next in order of beauty. 

 It climbs the hedges, or roams over the bank, raising its one- 

 sided spikes of bright blue flowers wherever it can find a 

 support. I have gathered it in many parts of Yorkshire, 

 Lancashire, Cheshire, Warwickshire, and Kent. 



The common Vetch (V. sativa), is cultivated as fodder for 

 cattle. It is a succulent herb, with a thick stalk ; its flowers, 

 growing alone or in pairs, are seated on the main stem. 



The Narrow-leaved Vetch (V. angustifolia), resembles the 

 common one, but is of a more slender habit. I found it first 

 on the ruins of Jervaulx Abbey, in Wensleydale ; and since, I 

 have seen it growing in Edward's favourite county, Kent. 



The Bush Vetch (V. sepium), with its grey purple clusters 

 at the axils of the leaves, is a very familiar ornament of our 

 heaths and woods, flowering in spring. 



There are a Sulphur Vetch and a Yellow Vetch, both fre- 

 quenting the south coast of England, and a Purple Vetch, 

 with only two pairs of leaflets on each leafstalk ; but none of 

 these have rewarded our researches. 



