134 LEGUMINOS^. [Orobus. 



W. Med. — About Thorley, as by the roadside going to Freshwater, and in 

 hedges by Bouldner, Rev. J. Penfold and Mr. Rob. Gihbs. Meadow between 

 Woodhouse and Little Town, near Briddlesford, Miss S. Sanders ! Between 

 Debborn turnpike and Gurnet farm, near a brook. Miss G. Kilderhee ! Near Sea 

 View and W. Cowes, Miss Lucas. 



Root annual, small, whitish, with a few long fibres bearing small, roundish, 

 fleshy tubercles. Stems erect, branching from the base, simple above, from 12 or 

 18 inches to 2 feet high or even more, hollow, angular, leafy, quite glabrous. 

 Leaves alternate, erect, linear, very much like those of some grass in shape and 

 colour, 4 or 5 inches long, hardly J inch wide, about 7-ribbed, smooth and quite 

 entire, with a pair of very minute awl-shaped stipules at their base. Peduncles 

 solitary, axillary, 1- or 2-flowered, long, smooth, slender, erect, shorter than the 

 leaf Flowers on very short slightly hairy pedicels, with or without a minute bract 

 at their jointed insertion on the peduncle, about the size of those of the common 

 Vetch {Vicia sativa), wings and standard bright crimson fading at last into dull 

 blue, the keel whitish. Calyx shining, nearly glabrous, the teeth only clothed 

 and fringed with a few scattered white hairs, strongly 5-ribbed, the lower seg- 

 ments nearly equal in length, the 2 upper somewhat shorter, all lanceolate and 

 very acute. Standard orbicular, erect. Style much flattened, transversely obtuse, 

 pilose on its inner side about half way down, faintly keeled in front. Legumes 

 pale nut-brown, pendulous, very narrow, from about 2J to 2\ inches long, and 

 about J inch wide, subcylindrical, nearly straight, prominently veined or wrinkled 

 lengthwise, glabrous, obliquely mucronato-acuminate, the point recurved. Seeds 

 from 10 or 12 to 16 or 17, globose or slightly cylindrical, gray or reddish mottled 

 with black, bluntly tuberculate, glabrous ; hilum oblong or ovate, short. 



This plant is impatient of cultivation, and does not always succeed in the gar- 

 den. The flowers, which are of short duration, lose much of their native brilliancy, 

 as they soon do altogether after being gathered. I have remarked them of a 

 brick-red in Kew Botanic Gardens. Dr. Bell-Salter observes that this species is not 

 strictly annual, as the root often survives the winter, and is furnished with hyber- 

 nacula. He further remarks that the perfect seed-pods are formed in buds which 

 do not open, and thinks that the plant is more common than is usually supposed, 

 but for want of favourable circumstances for its perfect development is often 

 passed by, from its resemblance to the grass amongst which it grows. A moist 

 or even wet season Dr. Bell-Salter thinks best suits it. 



XIV. Oeobus, Linn. Bitter- vetch. 



" Calyx obtuse at the base, oblique at the mouth, its upper 

 segments deeper and shorter. Style linear, downy above. — Leaves 

 pinnate, without tendrils." — Br. Fl. 



A small genus, with the habit of the two preceding genera, but of more humble 

 growth, not climbing, and destitute of tendrils ; flowers mostly purplish, appear- 

 ing early ; root usually bearing tubers. With the exception of the following, the 

 species are Aery rare in Britain. 



1. O. tuherosus, L. Tuberous-rooted Bitter-vetch. Leaflets 

 2 — 4 pairs glaucous beneath, stipules half arrow-shaped toothed 

 at the base, stem simple erect winged. E. B. t. 1153. 



/3. Leaflets linear. O. tenuifoHus, Roth. Hook. Br. Fl. p. 114. Vide Sibbald, 

 Scot. lUust. 



In woods, thickets, groves, and ou bushy heaths and commons ; very frequent. 

 Fl. April — June. Fr. July, August. Zf . 



E. Med. — In Quarr copse, Apley wood, and other places about Ryde, com- 

 monly. Abundant in woods between Wootton and Whippingham. In Brid- 

 dlesford copse, plentiful, where I have found it with extremely narrow (linear- 

 lanceolate) leaflets, and with all gradations between that and the broadest form. 

 Plentiful in Bovdwood copse. 



