LEGUMINOS^E 129 



Vicia sylvatica L. Wood Vetch. 



This British Vetch is occasionally met with as high as 6500 feet 

 in Switzerland, as, e.g. below the Triibsee, near Engelberg, where 

 it assumes a dwarf, tufted habit and grows with Hedysarum obscumm 

 and Lilium Martagon on a steep, stony slope. Flowers white, 

 veined with blue or violet. Mountain woods in North, Central and 

 Eastern Europe. 



Vicia onobrychioides L. (Plate IX.) 



A very handsome Vetch, 1^-3 feet long, almost glabrous and 

 climbing. Leaves with 5-8 pairs of linear leaflets. Flowers a 

 beautiful rich violet with paler keel, large, 6-12 in a loose cluster. 

 Calyx-teeth very unequal, the two upper short and connivant. 

 Pods about 30 by 5 mm., glabrous, fawn-coloured at maturity. 



Cultivated and waste places in the hills, up to about 4000 feet 

 in Valais and the Eastern Pyrenees (e.g. Montlouis). May to July. 



Distribution. S. and S.E. France, Valais (Orsieres, etc.), S. 

 Europe, N. Africa. This is a plant to introduce into our gardens. 



LATHYRUS L. Pea. 



Herbs with weak stems, sometimes climbing, and sagittate or 

 half -sagittate stipules. Leaves usually pinnate, with fewer and 

 larger leaflets than in Vicia, the common leaf-stalk often ending in 

 a tendril. Flowers solitary or in racemes, on axillary peduncles, 

 purple, red, white, or yellow. Style, flattened below the stigma, 

 quite glabrous on outer side. Pods cylindrical or flattened. Seeds 

 several, usually globular. 



A large genus with nearly as wide a geographical range as Vicia. 



Lathyrus luteus Peterm. (Orobus luteus L.). (Plate IX.) 



Stem angular, 1-3^ feet high, erect, often branched. Stipules 

 half-sagittate or entire or feebly toothed at the base only. Leaves 

 usually with 4 pairs of leaflets, which are elliptic and rather acute, 

 almost glaucous beneath. Flowers yellowish, large, afterwards 

 yellow-brown. Style linear, bearded at the apex. 



Pastures and mountain woods up to 6000 feet ; local. June, July. 

 Distribution. Jura, Alps, Corbieres, Pyrenees, Central and 

 Southern Europe. Siberia. 



Lathyrus niger Bernh. 



A glabrous plant, 1-2 feet high, turning black on being dried. 

 Stems angular, erect. Leaves with 4-6 pairs of oval or elliptic 

 leaflets, glaucous above. Stipules linear. Flowers reddish purple, 

 then bluish, rather small, 4-8 in a loose cluster, longer than the 

 leaves. Calyx- teeth very unequal. Pods linear, about ij inches 

 longer, black when ripe. 



Mountain woods, especially on limestone. May to July. 



Distribution. Most of hilly Europe, Caucasus, Algeria. 



