248 LEGUMINOSAE (PULSE FAMILY) 
The most widely distributed of the Vetches, being very common 
in both Europe and Asia. Like nearly all of the Legume Family 
it has root tubercles which cause it to enrich the soil where it 
grows; it furnishes good forage and good hay, but its tough, creep- 
ing rootstocks make it so difficult of removal from places where it is 
not wanted that it must often be rated as a bad weed. (Fig. 177.) 
Stems tufted, slender, angled, 
branching, two to four feet long, 
climbing by means of tendrils at the 
tips of the pinnately compound leaves 
and forming dense mats, smothering 
grass or other plants that grow be- 
neath, and entangling and pulling 
down the crop when growing in a 
grain field. Leaves sessile or nearly 
so, composed of eighteen to twenty- 
four thin, narrowly oblong, entire 
bristle-tipped leaflets. The whole 
plant is’ covered with fine, close- 
pressed hairs and is a soft olive green 
in color. Flowers numerous, on 
slender, one-sided axillary racemes 
about as long as the leaves, the 
standard and wings of the corollas 
being narrower than in the preceding 
species; each blossom is about a 
Fie. 177.— Cow Vetch (Vicia half-inch long, violet-blue in color, 
Conteh: Ie and hangs reflexed on its stalk. Pods 
smooth, about an inch in length, and contain five to eight small, 
dark brown, globular seeds. They are frequently an impurity of 
grass and clover seeds and are somewhat troublesome to remove. 
Means of control 
In grain fields, very many of the seedlings that have not yet 
begun to cling may be raked-out with a weeding harrowin the spring. 
Infested meadows should be broken up and put to a well-tilled hoed 
crop such as corn or potatoes, followed by oats and clover. In 
places where cultivation is not desirable, the rootstocks must be 
