92 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



In woods, tliickets, hedges, and borders of fields. Very common, 

 and generally distributed. 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Summer 

 and Autumn. 

 Stems 1^ to 3 feet high. Leaflets of the barren shoots gene- 

 rally smaller and more roundish-ovate than those of the flowering 

 stems, which have the basal leaflet of each leaf 1^ to 1 inch long, 

 becoming gradually smaller as they approach the apex of the com- 

 mon petiole ; their shape is usually oval-ovate, but sometimes more 

 neai-ly approaching lanceolate, and the degree of truncation at the 

 apex is very variable, the narrower forms of leaflets being sometimes 

 almost acute. Peduncles g- to ^ incli long, the flowers commencing 

 close to its base, and generally 4 in number, though frequently only 

 2. Plowers i to f inch long, pale livid-purple, with the wings naore 

 inclining to blue, and the keel whitish. Pods 1 to 1^ inch long, 

 black when ripe, with a very sharp somewhat falcate beak. Seeds 

 -|- inch across, smooth, dim, dull reddish-brown or olive marbled 

 with black. Plant dull-green, with short scattered hairs ; the 

 edges of the leaves ciliated, and the pedicels and calyces with longer 

 woolly hairs. 



Bush Vetch. 



French, Vesce des Haies. German, Zaun Wicke. 



Tliis species shoots earlier in the spring than any other plant eaten by cattle, 

 vegetates late in the autumn, and continues green all the winter ; but it is diflScult to 

 collect the seeds, as the pods burst and scatter them about ; and, moreover, hardly a 

 third part of them will vegetate, being made the nidus of an insect. 



SPECIES VIII.— VI CIA LUTE A. Unn. 

 Plate CCCLXXXIX. 



E.ootstock none, or short and much branched. Stems weak, 

 climbing or procumbent. Leaves with 5 to 7 pairs of elliptical or 

 linear-elliptical leaflets, rounded or acute and mucronate at the 

 apex ; common petiole terminating in a simple or branched tendril 

 or occasionally in a subulate point. Stipules half-hastate, small, 

 the upper ones ovate-acuminate. Flowers axillary, solitary, rarely 

 in pairs, erect or ascending. Pedicels shorter than the calyx-tube. 

 Calyx membranous, glabrous ; tube gibbous at the base on the 

 upper side ; teeth unequal, the upper ones deltoid, suddenly con- 

 tracted to subulate, about half the length of the tube or little more, 

 the lateral pair triangular-subulate, nearly equal to the tube, the 

 lowest one similar but slightly exceeding the tube. Standard 

 glabrous, three or four times as long as the calyx-tube, with an 



