16 



am glad to report that there are several large clusters 

 of the Lathyrus all in beautiful flower this year (1877). 



The Vicia lutea^ or rough-podded yellow-flowered 

 Vetch, which is a local plant, may be found in con- ^ ^ 

 siderable quantity on the cliff near Sandsfoot Castle, 

 and rather curiously, on a hedge bank on the farm of my 

 sagacious friend Professor Buckman, who pointed it out 

 to me. There is another place on the railway embank- 

 ment between Weymouth and Hadipole, where I found 

 a variety of the plant having the flowers purplish, or 

 veined with purple. This is said to have been the case 

 with Vicia loemgata^ formerly found at Weymouth, but 

 supposed to be now extinct, and, as except in its 

 smooth pod and purplish flowers it differed very little 

 from Vicia lutea, it was very probably only a variety of 

 that Vetch. 



Another plant that shows itself plentifully all about 

 the vicinity of Weymouth is the Iris fcetidissima. It 

 is always conspicuous with its long, shining, rigid, and 

 leatliery leaves ; but its blue flowers make it still more 

 conspicuous in July. 



Other commoner plants might be mentioned as from 

 growing in extensive patches, giving a colourable 

 feature to the scene, as the pale yellow Ladies'-finger 

 (Anthyllis vuhieraria)^ and the Horse-shoe Vetch 

 (HiiJiwcrepis comosa), both abundant on the cliffs 

 about Weymouth, as true endemic plants, while the 

 red-flowered Oiiohrychis safiva colours railway banks 

 in various places as an escape from cultivation, being 

 a determined colpnist not to be disj^laced. 



