1008 OROBUS. | CLASS XVII. ORDER IIT. 
terminating in a compressed point, and bearing two to four pairs of 
leaflets, very glaucous beneath, three ribbed, and veiny beneath, the 
mid-rib terminating in a small bristle point, varying in width from 
two lines to half an inch, commonly elliptic lanceolate or oblong 
lanceolate. Inflorescence axillary peduncles from the axis of the 
upper leaves, than which they are longer, angular, and terminating in 
araceme of from two to six flowers. Calyx campanulate, the base 
obtuse, its mouth oblique, unequally five toothed. Corolla pale pink, 
elegantly veined and variegated with purple and blue. Legumes 
pendulous, sub-cylindrical, linear, oblique, black, smooth. Seeds 
numerous, globose, smooth, dark brown, the hilum linear. 
Habitat.—Woods, thickets, and mountainous pastures ; common. 
8. Kinnaird, May Woods, Inverness-shire, and near Elgin, Scotland. 
Perennial; flowering in May and June. 
The tuberous roots have, when masticated, a sweetish taste, and by 
the highlanders of Scotland are much esteemed; they dry them, and 
masticate them before drinking their whiskey, for the purpose of giving 
it a relish, in the same way as it is customary in many parts of Italy 
to masticate the dried seeds of fennel to give a relish to their Wine. 
The poor highlanders also say that chewing these tubers for a long 
time allays the feeling of hunger. In some parts of Scotland, as in 
Ross-shire, and among the Breadalbane mountains they bruise these 
tubers and infuse them in water, which is fermented into a kind of 
liquor ; and when other food is scarce they are boiled and used as a 
vegetable. In Holland and Flanders they also cook them and eat 
them in the same way as chestnuts. It is not improbable that, if 
this plant was cultivated, it would furnish us with excellent edible 
tubers. 
2. O. ni'ger, Linn. (Fig. 1176.) Black Bitter Vetch. Stem angular, 
branched, erect ; leaves pinnate, with three to six pairs of ovate or 
oblong obtuse leaflets, very glaucous beneath; stipules half arrow- 
shaped, linear lanceolate; root fibrous; peduncles few flowered; 
legumes linear, cylindrical. 
English Botany, t. 2788.—English Flora, vol. iii. p. 271—Hooker, 
British Flora, ed. 4. vol. i. p. 269.—Lindley, Synopsis, p. 87. 
Root long, tapering, and fibrous, the whole plant smooth, and be- 
coming quite black with drying. Stems mostly several, from one to 
two feet high, angular, much branched and leafy, spreading. Leaves 
without tendrils, pinnate, the common stalk compressed, channeled, 
leaflets in from three to six pairs, ovate, oblong, obtuse, about an inch 
long, each on a short partial footstalk, dark green above, very glaucous 
beneath, the mid-rib prominent, and terminating in a bristle point, 
veiny. Stipules half arrow-shaped, linear lanceolate, tapering. In- 
florescence slender angular peduncles from the axis of the upper 
leaves, terminating in a one sided raceme, of from four to six elegant 
