EARLY HISTORY, AND BOTANY OF. 167 



known as common weeds, those entering into cultivation 

 being comparatively very few in number. The name 

 Vicia is said to be derived from the Latin word 

 " vincio," to bind, owing to the tendrils the plants possess, 

 by which they attach or bind themselves to other plants. 

 The vetch is indigenous to this country, as well as to 

 most others in Europe: it has also been met with in 

 many other countries, especially in China and Japan. Dr. 

 Lindley tells us that the genus is distinguished from the 

 pea; which it mostly resembles in its appearance and habit 

 of growth, chiefly by the style, which is filiform, and either 

 hairy all round in its upper part, or with a tuft of hair 

 underneath the stigmate. The leaflets are also more 

 numerous in each leaf of the vetch than in most of the 

 allied genera, while the common leaf-stalk ends in a point 

 or tendril, which always seeks some erect body to which to 

 attach and support itself. Although all the numerous 

 species are wholesome and suitable for cattle food, the fol- 

 lowing only are those which enter into cultivation for 

 that purpose. 



1. Vicia sativa Common Vetch or Tare. Of this 

 species there are two principal varieties, known as the 

 ivinter and summer vetch or tare. Under favourable 

 conditions, the vetch grows to the height of 3 to 4 feet, 

 carrying from six to ten pairs of leaves on a tender succu- 

 lent stem, and forming flowers of a purple and blue or 

 reddish colour, closely sessile, or on very short stalks in the 

 axils of the leaves. The seed-pod is slightly hairy, split- 

 ting in two valves, and containing several dark-coloured 

 globular seeds. 



The vetch being used entirely by us for forage purposes, 

 it is of course desirable, as a general rule, to keep up the 

 supply of food by a succession of crops coming to maturity 

 at different times, so that the one shall be ready by the 

 time the other is all consumed. The two varieties of the 



