LEGUMINIPER^. 1)7 



liardy gi'owth, and when sown Jipon rich land will return a large supply of green fodder 

 lor tlie consumption of horses or for fattening cattle. In the county of Sussex, Young 

 observes, " Tare crops are of such use and importance that not one tenth of the stock 

 could be maintained without them ; horses, cows, sheep, hogs, all feed upon them ; hogs 

 are soiled upon them without any other food." Upon one acre of Tares, Danes main- 

 tained four horses in much better condition than upon five acres of grass ; upon eight 

 acres he has kept twelve horses and five cows for three months without any other food 

 wiiatever. No artificial food is equal to this excellent plant. A writer who ouotes 

 this opinion observes that " this statement must be coupled with the usual produce of 

 turnips in Sussex, ten or fifteen tons per acre ; hence the superiority of Tares to every 

 other green crop." Tares cut green, Professor Thaer observes, draw no nourishment 

 from the soil whatever, while, made into hay, they afford a fodder preferred by cattle to 

 peas-straw, and more nutritive than hay or any other herbage. Tbe seeds of the Tare 

 are much used as food for pigeons and poiiltry. The plant is sometimes cultivated with 

 tliis object, being generally sown with beans, and the two threshed out together when 

 ripe. The seeds, like those of most European legumes, have been used as human food 

 but are neither very palatable or digestible, though extremely nutritious. 



Sub-Species II.— Vicia angustifolia. Roth. 



Pl.\tes CCCXCIII. CCGXCIV. 



Fries, Sum. Veg. Scaud. p. 47. Koch, Syn. Fl. GJerm. et llelv. ed. iL p. 217. 



Gr. k Godr. Fl. de Fr. Vol. I. p. 459. 

 V. sativa, /5 angustifolia. Hook. & Am. Brit. Fl. ed. viii. p. 111. 



Stems rather stout, or slender. Leaflets of the lower loaves 

 obovate or oblong-oblanceolate, emarginate or truncate at the 

 apox ; those of the upper leaves oblong-oblanceolate or linear, 

 truncate or abruptly acuminated and mucronate at the apex. 

 Stipules generally green. Flowers i^ to f inch long, with the 

 standard reddish -purple or crimson. Pods 1 to If inch long, gene- 

 rally spreading, black or deep olive-brown when ripe, without 

 imperfect cellular partitions between the seeds, Avhich produce 

 only indistinct bosses on the exterior of the pod. Seeds ^ inch 

 in diameter or less. 



Var. a, segetalis. Koch. 



Plate CCCXCIII. 



v. sativa, var. (i, Sering«, in D. C. Prod. Vol. II. p. 361. 



V. sativa, ft, angustifolia, Bah. Man. Brit. Bot. ed. v. p. 85. BerUh. Handbook Brit. Fl 



p. 179. i'm. Eng. Fl. Vol. III. p. 281. 

 V. angustifolia, Fm-ster, in E. B. S. No. 2614. 



Stems rather stout. Upper leaves oblong. Flowers mostly in 

 pairs. Pods 1^ to 2 inches long, splitting the calyx. 



VOL. III. o 



