86 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



which is in a continuous line with the pedicel and forms an obtuse 

 nugle upwards with that of the pod; upper and lower margins 

 of tlie pod nearly parallel, rounded both at the base and the apex, 

 the latter raucronate from the remains of the style : but this mucro 

 is in the middle — not at the apex of the ujjper suture as in the last 

 species, the surface glabrous in British specimens. Seeds dull- 

 l)rowu, or yellowish-olive marbled with black, the hilum about tlu'ee 

 times as long as broad. Plant pale greyish-green, sub-glabrous. 



Four-seeded Slender Tare. 



French, Vesee h quatre Graines. German, Viersaniige JErve. 



SPECIES III— VI CIA GRACILIS. Lois. 



Plate CCCLXXXIV. 



Bromfield, in Eng. Bot. Sup. No. 2904. Bah. Man. Brit. Bot. ed. v. p. 83. 



Vicia tetrasperraa, var. /j gracilis, Hook. &, Am. Brit. Fl. ed. viiL p. 114. Benth. 



Handbook Brit. Fl. p. 177. 

 Ervura graoile, D. C. Koch, Syn. Fl. Germ, et Helv. ed. ii. p. 219. Gr. k Godr. FL 



de Fr. Vol. I. p. 475. Lowe, Man. Fl. Mad. p. 195. 



Annual, Leaves with 2 to 4 pairs of linear-strapshaped leaf- 

 lets, abruptly acuminated and mucronate at the apex ; common 

 petiole terminating in a simple or once-forked tendril. Lower 

 stipules cleft into 2 lanceolate acute lobes, those of the upper leaves 

 usually similar, more rarely entire. Peduncles longer than the leaves, 

 1- to 7-flowered. Calyx-tube not gibbous on the ujiper side ; teeth 

 unequal, triangular, shorter than the calyx-tube. Flowers three 

 times as long as the calyx. Pods spreading-reflexed, stipitate, 

 cylindrical, scarcely compressed, rounded at the apex, where they 

 are apiculate but not acuminated, usually glabrous. Seeds gene- 

 rally 6, but varying from 4 to 7, globular, with tlie hilum roundish- 

 oval, about one-twelfth the circumference of the seed. 



In cornfields and waste places, llather rare, and apparently 

 confined to the South of England. I have gathered it only in 

 Essex, but specimens have been sent me from the counties of 

 Dorset, Hants, and Cambridge, and it is reported on good authority 

 from Kent, the neighbourhood of Eath, and county Kerry. 



England, Ireland. Annual. Spring to Autumn. 



Extremely like V. tctrasperma, on which account, no doubt, it 

 is frequently overlooked, so that it appears to be scarcer than it really 

 is. It is, however, a stouter plant, with fewer pairs of leaflets ; 

 the leaflets longer, narrower, and decidedly acute ; the peduncles 

 much longer, the upper ones much exceeding the leaves from uhicli 



