DIADELPHIA— DECANDRIA. Vlcia. 281 



stalksj various in length. Cor. beautifully variegated with tints 

 of bright blue and some purple. Cal. partly coloured, nearly 

 smooth. Style, as Curtis'observes, hairy all round. Legume 

 the size of the last, smooth, with 4 or 5 dark globular seeds. 

 Said to be nutritious food for cattle, but it has not come into use, 

 probably from the difficulty of gathering, or of cultivating, so 

 pertinacious a climber. 



** Flowers axilla)^, nearly sessile. 



3. V. sat'iva. Common Vetch. 



Flowers nearly sessile, mostly in pairs. Leaflets elliptic- 

 oblong ; lower ones abrupt. Stipulas with a blackish de- 

 pression beneath. Seeds orbicular, smooth. 



V. sativa. Linn. Sp. PL 1037. fVilld. v. S.llOA. Fl.Br.769. Engl. 

 Bot.v.o.t. 334. Mart. Rust.t. l\6. Hook. Scot. 2\5. Fl. Dan. 

 t.522. 



a. Vicia. Rail Syn. 320. Riv.Tetrap. Irr. t. 54. Ger. Em. 1227./. 



Lob. Ic. V. 2. 75./. Camer. Epit. 320./. Trag. Hist. 624. f. 

 V. vulgaris sativa. Bauh. Hist. jj. 2. 310./. 

 V. vera, Aphaca Matthiolo. Dalech. Hist. 478./. 

 Aphaca. Matth. Valgr. v. 1. 500./ 

 /3. Vicia sylvestris, sive Cracca major. Raii Syn. 321 . Ger. Em. 



1227./ 

 V. n. 430. Hall. Hist. v. I. 186. 

 V. lathyroides a. Huds. 318. 

 V. angustifolia. TVilld. v. 3. 1 105. Riv. Tetrap. Irr. t. 55. Ehrh. 



Herb. 57. Roth Germ. zj. 1 . 3 1 ? 

 V. vulgaris sylvestris, semine parvo et nigro, frugum. Bauh. Hist. 



v.2.3\2.f. 

 Vicia. Matth. Valgr. v. 1 . 501 ./. bad. 

 Aphaca vera, Vicia Matthiolo. Dalech. Hist. 478./. 



In corn fields, and other cultivated ground. , 



/3 Among grass or bushes, on more barren or sandy ground. 



Annual. May, June. 



Root tapering, with many fibres. Herb more or less downy, with 

 minute, silky, scattered, tawny hairs, very variable in luxuriance, 

 as well as in the shape and number of its leaflets; its colour 

 a bright grass green. Stems procumbent, or more usually climb- 

 ing by the branched tendrils of the footstalks, angular, furrowed, 

 leafy, not branched, except at the bottom, from li to 3 feet 

 high. Leaflets from 6 to 10, opposite or alternate, elliptic-ob- 

 long, bristle-pointed, abrupt j in /3 lanceolate and more acute ; 

 those of the lower leaves, in a more especially, short and in- 

 versely heart-shaped. Stipulas half-arrow-shaped, bristle-point- 

 ed, more or less toothed, variable in breadth, each stamped, as 

 if by a hot iron, with a blackish depression on the under side. 



