148 SWEET MILK VETCH, 



it untouched, otherwise it would be a valuable 

 plant. for culture, because of its abundant 

 foliage. 



We have another native species, the Purple 

 Mountain Milk Vetch [Astragalus hypocjlottis), 

 easily distinguished from the sweet species, not 

 only by the colour of its flowers, but by its 

 much smaher size. Its stem is weak, and only 

 a few inches high, with small sprays of leaflets, 

 and a cluster of flowers very large in proportion 

 to the foliage. It is of a bluish-pm-ple colour, 

 and sometimes white. It grows on dry, 

 gravelly, or chalky pasture lands, chiefly in 

 the south of England. It is very plentiful 

 on the celebrated Royston jNIoor, The seed- 

 vessels are erect and hairy, and it flowers during 



Botanists enumerate a thud species of Milk 

 Vetch {Astragalus alpinus), which has been 

 found only in the Glen of the Dole, Clova, and 

 is distinguished by its spreading branched stem, 

 and spikes of w^hite drooping flowers tipped 

 with purple ; its seed-vessels hang dowTi, and 

 are covered with black hairs. 



