TUFTED VETCH. 



Vicia Cracca. Nat. Ord., Leguminosce. 



MONGST the different species 

 of wild peas, or tares, or vetches, 

 as they are variously termed, 

 our present plant, the tufted 

 vetch, is perhaps one of the most 

 conspicuous, as the brilliant 

 bluish-purple of its masses of 

 clustering blossoms, and the 

 height to which the plant often 

 attains in the struggle for ex- 

 istence in the crowded hedgerow, 

 are points that tend to bring it 

 into prominence. The greater 

 number of the tares or vetches are 

 yellow in colour, and though some of 

 them, as the meadow vetchling, are sturdy 

 climbers, the majority are content with 

 a lowlier place. The flowers of the tufted 

 vetch are severally not so large as in some of the other 

 kinds, but what is lost in the individual is gained in the 

 mass, as collectively they form a dense head of blossom, 

 and it is the aggregate effect in the hedgerow that really 

 appeals to the eye. 



The tufted vetch is a very variable plant, and we have 

 been fortunate in procuring an exceptionally fine specimen 

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