ASTRA G'ALUS VESICA'RIUS. 
BLADDERED MILK VETCH. 
Class. Order. 
DIADELPHIA. DECANDRIA. 
Natural Order. 
LEGUMINOSiE. 
Native of 
Height. 
Flowers in 
Duration. 
Introduced 
Europe. 
§ foot. 
May, June. 
Perennial. 
in 1737. 
No. 685. 
Astragalus is a name which was used by the 
Greeks for a plant, but what meaning it was in- 
tended to bear, when so employed, is now unknown. 
The Latin vesica, vesicarius, aliudes to the bladdery 
calyx of this species. 
It is a fact known to mosl cultivators of flowers, 
that the description of soil in which plants are 
grown, has not only a greater or less influence on 
their growth, but also, that it has a certain influence 
on the colour of their blossoms, varying according 
to the constituent principles of which it consists. 
We do not apply this observation to such plants as 
are ever-variable, as it were, — that sport into half 
the shades of the rainbow wherever they may 
happen to be grown, but to those which have fixed 
limits to their powers of change — that vary the in- 
tensity only of their tints. In strong red loamy 
earth we have observed the colour of annual flowers, 
in particular, much more strong and brilliant than 
that of the same species grown in black old garden 
mould, which had long been under cultivation. 
Roses also, appear to be somewhat under the go- 
vernment of the same laws of nature ; and the 
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