126 LEGUMiNOSiU. [Vicia. 



leaflets, of a dull green in the older plants, grayish beneath, obtuse, with a minute 

 mucro, slightly hairy at the edges and on iheir reticulated under surface. Sti- 

 pules ovato-lanceolate, pointed, with an occasional tooth or two. Peduncles axil- 

 lary, erect, shorter than the leaves, furrowed and glabrous. Flowers about i an 

 inch long, in short ovate or subcapitate racemes, erect, of a pale dingy greenish 

 yellow with sometimes a slight tinge of red, on very abbreviated hairy pedicels, 

 which have each a linear ciliated bract at its base, shorter than the calyx. Calyx 

 gibbous above at the back, its teeth subulate, the 2 upper ones short, distant, a 

 little converging, the 3 lower much longer, straight, slightly ciliated at the base 

 and along the very obtuse sinuses. Standard oblong, veined with green, closely 

 incumbent upon and almost concealing the very obtuse keel and wings. Stamens 

 united into a tube cleft its whole length above. Style smooth, compressed, taper- 

 ing from the somewhat hairy ovary without any visible articulation to a point, on 

 which is the small, glandular, oblique stigma. Legumes clustered, erect, brownish 

 and membranous, an inch or rather more in length, curved and tipped with the 

 style, reticulated, glabrous or at least only sprinkled over with extremely short, 

 minute, distant hairs, slightly villous on their inner surface, with a deep groove 

 along their under side from the inflexion of their sutural margins. Seeds small, 

 reniform, pale greenish yellow, in 2 rows, one along each margin of the dehiscing 

 upper suture, and separated from the other row by the inflexed portion of the 

 lower and indehiscent suture, which reaches to the superior commissure but is 

 unattached to it, thus dividing the cavity into two imperfectly closed cells. 



The foliage of this plant, which gives out a most unpleasant smell in drying, 

 and possesses a sweet taste like liquorice, followed by an unpleasant bitterness, 

 great resembles that of the Locust-tree (Rohinia Pseud-acacia), commonly but 

 absurdly called Acacia in this country, and when growing in plantations, amongst 

 long grass, might be overlooked for young stems of that beautiful and valuable 

 native of America. 



A. hypoglottis, \i. — The following stations have been given for this species : — 

 Carisbruoke-castle hill, Mr. Griffith in Bot. Guide.* Dover spit, in plenty, 

 B. T. W. 



Tribe II. Vicieje. 



Stamens diaclelphous. Legume continuous. Cotyledons thick, 

 farinaceous, not rising above ground. Leaves abrupilij pinnate, 

 their common petiole ending in a tendril or bristle. 



XII. Vicia, Linn. Vetch. Tare. 



" Style filiform, with its upper part hairy all round, or with a 

 tuft of hair beneath the stigma. — Leaves usually ivith tendrils." — 

 Br. Fl. 



* Peduncles elongated, many-flowered. 



1. Y. sylvatica, L. Wood Vetch. " Peduncles many-flowered 

 longer than the leaves, leaflets elliptic-oblong mucronate, stipules 

 lunate deeply toothed at their base, tendrils branched." — Br. Fl. 

 p. 111. E. B. t. 79. 



* [The following observation is published by our lamented author in the ' Phy- 

 lologist,' vol. iii. p. 280 : — " Astragalus hypoglottis, recorded in ' Botanist's Guide' 

 as found on Carisbrook-castle hill, by Mr. Griffiths, p. 469, certainly does not 

 grow there at present, and I question if it ever did. Mr. Griffiths seems to have 

 been a most inaccurate observer, as I shall have occasion to show subsequently, 

 and to have committed strange mistakes in his reports of species." — EdrsP\ 



