286 
The BRITISH HERBAL. 
The pods are long and flender, and the feeds 
are fmall and round. 
We have this elegant plant in woods and 
thickets in many parts of England, though not 
common like the former. It flowers in Augult. 
Ray calls it Vicia fylvalica multijlora maxima. 
The feeds of thefe are eaten by wild birds, and 
DIVISION II. F O 
Thick-podded, broad-leaved Cracca. 
Cracca hi! folia ftligids craffis. 
The root is thick, long, and furnilhed with 
numerous fibres. 
The (lalks are many, firm, of a dufiiy colour, 
and branched. 
The leaves are beautifully pinnated : they are 
compofed each of eight or more pairs of pinniE ; 
and thefe are broad, fliort, very obtufe, and have 
a kind of thread at their end, which is a conti- 
nuation of the middle rib beyond the verge of the 
leaf. 
would ferve as wto, and other of the pulfc kind, 
for the feeding fome domeftic animals : they 
are not cultivated for fuch purpofe, not becauib 
they are not worthy, but becaufe others .ire in 
ufe. Many of thefe are better bearers, and 
would be more ferviceable than the ctimimii Um, 
or other ufual kinds. 
REIGN SPECIES. , 
The whole pinnated leaf is terminated by a 
flight tendril ; but this is not conflant, nor is it 
fo important to this fhrubby kind as to thofe 
which are weaker. 
The flowers are fmall and purple : they (land 
in long fpikes, in the manner of thofe of the com- 
mon Englifh many-fiowered kind ; and they have 
a long, general footfl:alk, and each its fliort and 
fmall feparate one, by which it is connefted to that. 
The pods are broad, fliort, and fmooth : the 
feeds ate round, large, and not numerous. 
It is a native of the Eafl:. 
Burman calls it Vicia multifiora fiiqiia tre-Jore. 
GENUS VII. 
BEAN. 
F A B A. 
- HE flower is papilionaceous, and regularly formed of four petals. The vexillum is large, oval, 
. , ■., _ ■ u.,„„ ,„rl tnrnrd hark at the fides; and it has a long hollow bot- 
THE flower is papilionaceous, and reguiariy rormcu ui ioui y^.^^.. . 
dented with a point at the top, and turned back at the fides ; and ^, 
torn The ate are fliorter than the vexiUum •, and are flrait, and a little heart-tafliionea. The ca- 
rinTis ftiorter than the alx, and is flatted, and half round. The cup .s compofed of a Imgle tubular 
^i^ce' divided into five irregular fegments at the edge, the two upper ones fliorter than the reft, and 
convergent The pod is very large, thick, and fomewhat flatted : the feeds are few, large, and 
flitted alfo. The fl:alks are fquare ■, and the leaves, though pinnated, have no tendrils. 
Linn^us places this among the diadelphia decaniria ; the threads in the flower being ten, and formed 
into two aflbrtments, nine in one, and the other fingle. , , , 
This author takes away the name and generical dift.n&on of th.s kind, and makes the bean to be a 
We ha?e"obrerved already, that the form of the feed-vefiVl and feeds is a fufficicnt diftinc^ion for 
the bean from the vetch as a genus •, and the fliape of the ftalk, and ftrufture of the leaves, confirms 
that diftinftion, and renders it perfectly obvious. 
I V I S I O N I. BRITISH SPECIES. 
I. The Horfe-Bean. 
faba vulgaris fruHu mmre. 
The root is long, flender, and furniflied with 
a great number of fibres. 
The ftalk is fquare, upright, thick, hollow, 
not at all branched, and of a pale green. 
The leaves are very large, and pinnated : each 
is compofed of three or four pairs of pinna:, with 
■an odd one at the end. 
In the pinnated leaves of allthepreccding kinds, 
a tendril has the place of this fingle or odd pinna, 
which is the pruvifion of nature for holding them 
up by climbing, the plants themfclves being weak ; 
but in the bean this afiiftance being not necef- 
fary, the kaves are completed without it. 
The flowers rife in the bofoms of the leaves, 
and are fupported on fliort footftalks : they are 
white, with a large quantity of black, by way of 
variegation, and many black flireaks or lines : 
upon the whole, they are beautiful, and they have 
a very fragrant fmell. 
The pods are very large, and the feeds alfo large. 
We find the hcrfe-bean very fmall in places re- 
mote from all habitations, which fcems to de- 
clare it a native of our country. But, in refpeft 
of plants whofe utility has rendered them for ages 
the fubjefts of the gardener's and hufbandman's 
labours, it is hard to fay with certainty, whether 
any plant of them we fee with a wild afpecl 
have not arifen from feeds cafually dropped, 
Thofe who do not allow the bean to be a native 
wild plant with us, know not what other country 
to aflign as its original place of growth ; for in 
mod: others the cafe ftands exaflly as with us. 
Probably it is common to many places, Nature 
having made things, fo ufcful in moft inftances, 
in a manner univerfal. 
C. Bauhine calls it Faba, and Faha minor. Jive 
Equina, Otiias,Fiihmiiior,fyiveJlris, andcomiiiuiiis. 
Authois 
