LEGUMINIFERiE. 99 



cylindrical, compressed, acuminated at the apex into a rather Ion" 

 sharp heak slii^-htly curved downwards, glahrous. Seeds roundish- 

 cubical, compressed, granulated with small prominent points ; 

 hilum oval, one-twelfth the circumlerence of the seed. 



On sandy and gravelly pastures and waste places. Eather 

 scarce^, but generally distributed, excejit in the extreme North of 

 Scotland. 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Annual. Spring and Summer. 



Very like small specimens of V. angustifolia, but more branched, 

 with the stems prostrate, 2 to 8 inches long, and thickly clothed with 

 spreading hairs. Leallets generally abovit ^ inch long, more hairy 

 than in the last, and Avith the apiculus or mucro at the apex shorter. 

 Flow(>rs smaller, \ to f inch long, pale-purple, with the calyx gi-a- 

 dually attenuated to the base, and not swollen on the ui)per side. 

 Pods i to 1 inch long, glabrous even when young, becoming olive- 

 black when ripe, not bossulated by the seeds. The most striking 

 ditlerence between this plant and V. angustifolia is in the seeds, 

 which are greyish-brown, with minute raised tubercles and a very 

 short hilum. Plant greyish-green, more or less hairy. 



Sprincj Vetch. 



French, Vesce Fmisse Gesse. German, Platterhsenartige Wiche. 



Section IV.— ARACHUS. Medic. 



Leaves with 1 or 2 pairs (rarely 3 pairs) of leaflets. Peduncles 

 axillary, elongated, or short, 1- to 3-flowered. Flowers in short 

 racemes or solitary. Style bearded with a tuft of long hairs below 

 the stigma on the outer side. Pods shortly stipitate, rather short. 



SPECIES XII.— VI CIA BITHYNICA. Linn. 

 Plate CCCXCVI. 

 Lathyrus Bithynicus, Lam. Die. Vol II p. 706. 



Rootstock none. Stems weak, trailing or climbing. Lower leaves 

 with 1, the others with 2 pairs or 3 pairs of elliptical, or linear- 

 strapshaped leaflets, rather obtuse or acute and mucronate at the 

 apex ; common petiole terminating in a branched tendril. Sti^mles 

 large, half-sagittate ; inciso-dentate on both margins. Peduncles 

 axillary, shorter than the leaves, or more rarely equalling them, 1- 

 or in the latter case 2- or 3-flowei-ed. Pedicels rather longer than 

 the calyx. Calyx herbaceous, haii'y, the tube more swollen on 

 the upper than on the lower side ; teeth unequal, triangular-subu- 



