132 LEGUMiNOS^. [Lathynis: 



* Peduncles 2- or more flowered. Petioles furnished with perfect leaflets. 

 Root perennial. 



1. L. pratcnsis, L. Meadoiv Vetchling. "Peduncles 2 — 8 

 flowered, tendrils with 2 lanceolate 3- nerved leaflets, stipules 

 arrow-shaped as large as the leaflets, calyx-teeth subulate, stem 

 acutely angled without wings."— fir. Fl. p. 112. E. B. t. 670. 



In moist meadows and pastuies, damp thickets, hedges and bushy places; very 

 common. -F^ July, August, i^r. August, September. !{.. 



Legumes suberect, dark brown or nearly black, rather more than an inch long 

 by about 3 lines in breadth, straight, much compressed, prominently veined and 

 glabrous, the valves silky within, undulately torulose or puckered beneath the 

 upper suture. Seeds, — seldom more than 2 or 3 perfected, rather large, subovato- 

 rotundate, yellowish gray mottled with purple, smooth and shining. Hilum 

 linear-elliptical, about ^ the circumference of the seed. 



2. L. sylvestris, L. Narrow-leaved Everlasting Pea. Pedun- 

 cles 4 — 5 flowered, tendrils with a pair of sword-shaped leaflets, 

 calyx-teeth triangular-subulate, stem winged. £r. Fl. p. 112. 

 E. B. i. 805. 



In woods, groves, thickets, hedges, and on broken, rocky, bushy ground ; not 

 general, and principally along the East and South-east coast of the island. Fl. 

 July — September. %. 



E. Med. — lu Luccombe chine, and in great profusion all over the landslip at 

 East End, covering the rocks in many places. Edge of the cliff a little before 

 descending by the pathway from Sandown into Shanklin chine, with leaflets so 

 broad that I took it for L. latifolius, the introduction of which into our island 

 Flora has, T fear, originated in a similar mistake on the part of others. Amongst 

 willows near the late Mr. Vine's cottage at Puckaster copse, near Yaverland farm. 

 Knighton East copse. About Puckaster, mostly with very narrow leaflets. In 

 great quantity under the cliff at Shanklin and Luccombe, Mr. J. Woods, jun., in 

 Bot. Guide !!! A plant or two observed in the high wood in Appuldurcombe park, 

 1845. 



Herb quite glabrous. Stems climbing over bushes and rocks to the length of 

 many feet, hollow, branched, acutely quadrangular, broadly winged along the 

 same two opposite angles throughout. Tendrils stout, 3-branched, hearing each 

 a single pair of erect, sessile, entire, bright green leaflets, 3 or 4 inches long, 

 swollen and jointed on the common petiole, and having 3 principal and very pro- 

 minent ribs : the upper leaflets usually narrow, linear-lanceolate or sword-shaped, 

 those lower on the stem often ovato-lanceolale, and so broad as often to cause our 

 plant to be mistaken for L. latifolius. Peduncles solitary, axillary, erect and 

 angular, several inches long, 4 — 12 flowered. Stipules semisagitlate, their seg- 

 ments linear, very acute. Flowers on short pedicels, J of an inch broad, rather 

 showy. Bracts subulate, the length of the pedicels. Standard pale purplish pink, 

 with darker reticulations ; wings violet or purplish blue ; keel whitish, with green 

 ribs, and slightly tinged above with bli.e and red. Legume pale brown, 2i inches 

 long, glabrous, covered with a prominent network of veins, and tipped with the 

 persistent style. Seeds blackish, with grayish sinuous markings, more or less 

 globular, flattened and dimpled, from 1 to 6 perfect, the rest abortive. Hilum 

 very narrow, not at all depressed, embracing i of the circumference of the seed. 



L. latifolius, L. — A plant said to be this species has been found in the follow- 

 ing places :— Sandown Beach, Pulteney in Bot. Guide. Near Carisbrooke Castle, 

 1830, Dr. Bell-Salter ! but I should fear scarcely wild. Specimens gathered 

 here appeared to me identical with those of ?Tr. Smith, but the flowers of the for- 

 mer seem much inferior in size to those ol the common state of the plant, so 



