The 
BRITISH HE REAL. 
289 
ground : they are a foot and half long, of a pale 
green, ftriated, and hairy. 
The leaves are pinnated in a very regular and 
beantiful manner: each is compofed ot eight or 
ten pair of fmall pinns, which are oblong, and 
of a dufty green on the upper fide, and ot a 
paler gretn underneath. 
Ti e flowers ftand in little clufters fix or e.ght 
together, and are of a plain rediflr colour on the 
outfide, and of a dead purple, ftreaked wth 
•white, within. 
The pods are broad, fliort, and fomewhat 
flatted : the feeds are alio fmall and Hatted. 
We have it in the north of England, and m 
fome of the fouthern provinces in woods, but 
not common. „ . „ t-u 
Ray calls it Onlus fylvejlm mjlras. The 
older writers have not mentioned it. 
2. Heath Orobus. 
Orrbus fyhvalkus fdiis Mongis glairis. 
The root is large, tuberous, and of an irregu- 
lar form : its tafte is fweet, and in fome degree 
refemJes that ot liquorice. 
The ffalk is weak, angular, fl:riated, of a dufky 
green, and a foot high. 
The leaves arc placed irregularly on it, and are 
of a deep green colour : they are of the pinnated 
kind, the larger confifting of two pairs of pinna;, 
without cither a tendril or an odd leaf at the end, 
and the fmaller only of one pair. 
The flowers grow on long footlf alks at the tops 
of the fl:alks and branches two or three together, 
and they are of a pleaCng purple colour. 
The pods are long and flender, and the fec'ds 
are roundifli. 
It is very common among buflies on heaths 
and in woods, and it flowers in April and 
IVIay. 
Ray calls it Orobus fylvaticus foUis oihngis 
glabris. Others, Jftragalus fylvalkiis, JJlmga- 
loides, and Lathyrus lignofior. 
The roots diced and boiled are good againft 
coughs ; and in nephritic complaints ; they on 
any occafion are ferviceable to obtund the acri- 
mony of humors. 
D 
IVISION II. FOREIGN SPECIES. 
Broad leaved Orobus. 
Orobus finnis latis. 
The root is long, thick, and divided into many 
^^The ftalk is of a pale green, firm, and tole- 
rably upright, and a foot and half high. 
The leaves are very beautifully pinnated : they 
are long, large, and of a pale green : each .s 
compofed of two or three pa.rs of pmna, which 
are of an oval figure, but lliarp -pointed, and of a 
deep green. 
The flowers grow in clufters, eight or ten toge- 
ther, on long footflralks rifing from the bofums 
of the leaves : they are fmall, and of a lainc 
purple. 
The pods are longifh and flender, and the feeds 
are fmall and round. 
It is a native of Italy, and flowers in May and 
June. 
Clufius calls it Orcbus fylvaticus vimlns ; and 
others adopt the fame name. 
G E N U S X. 
GRASS-VETCH. 
N J S S 0 L I J. 
THE flower is papilionaceous, and is compofed of four petals. The vexiUura Is large, and the 
ton and fides turn back ; the extremity alio is a little nipped. The ate are fiiort, blunt, and a 
little hoofed The carina is broad, and of a half-round figure, and is fplit at the bottom. The pod 
is very ioncr 'and the feeds are numerous and round. The leaves are placed fingly and alternately on 
the ftalksTand are long and narrow, refemblingthofe of grafs. ^ . ■ 
Linna:us places this among the diadelpUa decandrm ; the flower havmg ten threads, nine connefted 
nd a fine le one feparate. But this author does not allow the plant to be a diftinft ge- 
° the dymmum, aphaca, and others, all improperly with the lathyrus, making 
The conformity of the flowers in all thefe plants is this author's reafon ; 
in one body, 
nus. He joins this, as 
them fpecics of that genus 
for his fyfl:em permits 
him to look no farther : but as the fpecies are numerous, and generical dif- 
tinc^ions'therefure needful, where they can be fupported, this fimifarity of the flowers is the reafon 
why the charaders IKould be more carefuUy fought in other parts of the plant. The leaves aff-ord 
thefe abundant'y : and the genus oUatkyrus, as he eftablilhes it, is thus with perfeft reafon, and by 
very obvious characlers, divided into four ; the proper lathyrus having a fingle pair of pinns only, the 
cljmimm two or more pairs, the aphaca fingle leaves in pairs, and the grafs-wtch fingle leaves 
placed alternately. . , , . ^ , r 1, o r 
Thefe are diftinaions as fixed and Invariable as any the whole fcience affords from the flowers oi 
plants • t'hey are ufeful in the highefl: degree, and they are obvious and familiar. ^ 
Of this Angular genus there is but one known fpecies, and that is a native of Britain. 
N° 25. 
The 
