LEGUMINIFER.T!. ,9? 



upwards of fifty years from the time of sowing. In genoral, the great enomy to the 

 emliirance of Saiiitfoin is the grass, which accumulates and forms a close tuft on the 

 surface, and thus chokes up the plant. The Saintfoin seems to have been known to the 

 Komans. Plinj' recoinniends the I'oot of a plant supposed to be identical with it as an 

 astringent medicine, and Gerarde quotes Dioscorides as an authority for the virtues of 

 the Onobrychis. 



Tribe III.— V I C I E JE. 



Stamens diadelphous or sub-monadelphous, the uppermost one 

 free from the otlicr 9. Pod continuous (not articulated), 1-celled, 

 dehiscent. Cotyledons remaining enclosed in the seed-coat during 

 germination. Stem herbaceous, generally climbing by means ot 

 tendrils. Leaves pinnate, almost always without an odd terminal 

 leaflet ; the apex of the common petiole and a few of the apical 

 lateral pinnse often converted into tendrils, more rarely all reduced 

 to tendrils, or the leaf represented only by a foliaceous petiole; 

 leaflets entire, without stipels. Flowers axillary, in racemes or 

 sub-solitary, wings and keel usually united by the auricles at the 

 base of their laminae. 



GUNUS ZVL— VIC I A. Linn. 



Calj'x tubular-bellshaped, with 5 teeth, which are nearly equal, 

 or the 2 upper ones shorter. Standard oval or obovate, spreading. 

 Stamens diadelphous, with the tube obliquely truncate. Style fili- 

 form, ascending, without a conspicuous dilatation towards tbe apex, 

 near which it is hairy all round or on the outer side. Pod stalked 

 or sessile, exscrted, elongated and many- seeded, or short and few- 

 seeded, dehiscent. 



Herbs, generally climbing. Leaves mostly with numerous pairs 

 of rather small pinnae and terminating in a tendril. Stipules gene- 

 rally half-arrowshaped. Flowers of various colours, on axillary 

 peduncles, which are 1-, 2-, or racemosely many-flowered. 



The name is said to come from vincio, I bind together, because the species have 

 tendrils by which they bind other plants. 



Section I.— ERVUM. Tournef. 



Leaves with 3 or many pairs of leaflets. P(>duncles elongated, 

 1- to 8-flowered. Flowers racemose, small. Style pubescent all 

 round towards the apex, or nearly glabrous. Pods stipitate or sub- 

 sessile, short, 2- to 8-sccdcd. 



