130 LEGUMiNos,^. [Vicia. 



to 2 or 3 feel in length, more or less copiously branched or nearly simple, acutely 

 and ancipitally quadrangular rather than winged, hairy, at other times nearly or 

 quite glabrous. Leaves short, of from 3 to 5 pairs of opposite or partly alternate 

 leaflets, the common petiole produced into a tendril, which is most commonly 

 branched, but sometimes even on the same individual simple ; leaflets nearly ses- 

 sile, hairy or glabrous, spreading in various degrees, often in the superior leaves 

 either wholly or partially erect, most usually linear-elliptical and obtuse but not 

 truncate, their summits rounded with a short mucronate acumination, at other 

 times the leaflets are acute, at least of the upper leaves, the lower retaining their 

 obtuseness of termination. Stipules small, narrow, semisagittate or lanceolate, 

 very acute. Peduncles solitary, axillary, very slender or filiform, erect, 1 — 2 

 flowered, mostly shorter than the leaves (including their terminal tendril) or about 

 as long, ending in a veiy small inconspicuous point, sometimes wanting. Flowers 

 very small, about 3 lines in length, on still shorter, slightly drooping or decurved 

 pedicels. Calyx not half the length of the corolla, tubuloso-campanulate, scarcely 

 if at all gibbous on the upper side of its basal extremity, obscurely 9-ribbed, une- 

 qually 5-toothed, the 2 superior teeth very obtuse, with a deep rounded sinus 

 between them, broader and shorter than the rest, with ascending points ; the 3 

 lowermost teeth equal, triangular-lanceolate, straight. Standard pale blue or 

 purplish streaked with blue, bluntly emarginate, not much spreading; keel com- 

 pressed, white tipped with blue, the apex obtuse ; wings whitish. Style long, 

 straight, erect, hairy all round for some distance beneath the simple obsoletely 

 capitate stigma. Legume brown or yellowish, about i an inch in length, subellip- 

 tical oblong, obtuse or abrupt, a little compressed and torulose, quite smooth and 

 glabrous, tipped with the style, which appears to originate from a point somewhat 

 nearer the middle of the extremity of the pod than in E. gracile, from the greater 

 degree of flexure of the upper suture than in that species, though its real point of 

 insertion is the same in both ; bursting along the lower suture. Seeds 4 or 5 

 (sometimes but 1 or 2 or even entirely wanting, as I find mostly the case in spe- 

 cimens from Quarr Copse), spherical, dull brown, sometimes greenish, plain or 

 mottled, smooth and glabrous (slightly rough, Sab.) Hilurh long, extending 

 nearly J the circumference of the seed. 



This species, which is so frequent and injurious in cornfields and cultivated 

 land ill England, is extremely rare in Scotland and Ireland, and very uncommon 

 in Switzerland. 



8. V. gracilis, Lois. Slender Tare. " Peduncles 1 — 4 flowered 

 aristate at length twice as long as the leaf, upper leaflets 3 — 4 

 pairs linear acute, stipules semi-hastate, teeth of the calyx longer 

 than the tube, legumes linear glabrous 6-seeded." — Koch. E. B. 

 Sup'pl. t. 2904. Lois. Fl. Gall. ii. p. 148, t. 12 (opt.) Ervum 

 longifolium, Ten. Lej. Fl. cle Spa, ii. 108. Vicia laxiflora, Brot. 

 Phytogr. Lusit. Select, tab. .52, p. 125. Ervum varium, Brot. Fl. 

 Luslt. E. polyspermum. Smith in herb, ejus; Koch in Rcihl. 

 Deutschl. Fl. v. ler Th. s. 161. E. gracile, Sebast. et Mau. Fl. 

 Rom. Prod. p. 248, No. 881. V. tetrasperma /3., Br. Fl. p. 111. 



In waste and cultivated ground, on lay or fallow fields, and amongst corn, 

 more rarely in woods, thickets and hedgerows ; frequent, though less so than 

 either of the two last species. Fl. June — August. 0. 



E. Med. — First observed by me in 1838, in great abundance, amongst corn in 

 a field near Coppid Hall, and since in cornfields about Cowes. Very abundantly 

 in and about the borders of fields near Howgate farm, and between Foreland point 

 and the Culvers, for the most part with unusually large flowers, 3 or 4 times the 

 size of those of E. tetraspermum. I have also seen specimens from the Rev. 6. 

 E. Smith gathered in Binstead stone-pits, and it seems indeed to be not uncom- 

 mon ahout Ryde and elsewhere, as Thorley &c. 



