128 SUB-ALPINE PLANTS 



Stipules half sagittate. Flowers in axillary racemes. Wing- petals 

 adnate to the keel. Style inflexed, cylindrical, or flattened ; ovules 

 usually many. Legume compressed, two-valved. 



A large genus of about 120 species inhabiting^the northern 

 hemisphere and S. America. The nomenclature of certain groups 

 is obscure and vague, and the genus should be monographed. 



Vicia pyrenaica Pourr. 



A small perennial species about 4-6 inches high. Stem ascend- 

 ing. Lower leaves have 12 pairs of obcordate leaflets, upper have 

 4-6 pairs of wedge-shaped leaflets, truncate. Stipules entire. 

 Flowers rich violet, large, axillary, solitary, subsessile. Calyx 

 glabrescent, with almost equal teeth shorter than the tube. Standard 

 very large. Pod broadly linear, glabrous, blackish when ripe. 

 Seeds brown. 



Pastures up to 6500 feet. June, July. 



Distribution. Pyrenees, Spain, Hautes-Alpes and Basses- Alpes. 

 Quite suitable for planting in sunny, open positions on the rockery. 



Vicia sepium L. 



Stems 1-2 feet high. Stipules small and entire or larger and 

 toothed. Leaflets in 4-6 pairs, ovate or oblong ; leaf-stalk often 

 ending in a branched tendril. Flowers pale reddish purple, forming 

 a sessile cluster or very short raceme. Pod glabrous, about an inch 

 long. 



Bushy places and woods, from the plains up to 5000 feet in 

 Switzerland. May to September. 



Distribution. Europe and Russian Asia. From the Mediter- 

 ranean to the Arctic Circle, reaching the birch limit in Norway. 

 British. 



Vicia dumetorum L. 



A tall, climbing, glabrous species. Leaflets in 4-5 pairs, oval- 

 obtuse. Stipules toothed. Flowers purplish and then dirty yellow- 

 red, rather small, 3-8 in a loose spike, often longer than the leaves. 

 Pod 35-40 mm. long by about 8 broad, pointed, glabrous, fawn- 

 coloured at maturity. 



Woods in the mountains. June to September. 



Distribution. Jura, Eastern France, Switzerland, Central and 

 Eastern Europe from Sweden to Turkey. 



Vicia pisiformis L. 



A large climber with big oval leaflets in pairs of 4 or 5, and rather 

 small greenish yellow flowers. It grows in limestone woods, but is 

 rare in the Alps, though widely spread in Central and Eastern 

 Europe. 



