O'ROBUS CANES'CENS. 
CANESCENT BITTER VETCH. 
Class. 
mADELPHIA. 
Natural Order, 
LEGUMINOSvE. 
Order. 
decandria. 
Native of 
France. 
Heig-ht. 
Flowers in 
Duration 
1 foot. 
May, June. 
Perennial. 
Introduced 
in 1816. 
No. 646. 
Named from the Greek, as previously noticed, 
m allusion to its stimulating properties when given 
as food to cattle. 
The natural order, Leguminosa;, is one of the 
most important in the botanical system, containing 
as It does, so great a number of agricultural and 
medicinal plants. The celebrated traveller, Hum- 
boldt, calculated that it contains a twelfth part of 
all the flowering plants on the globe. It has been 
divided into several tribes by Decandolle, and our 
present plant belongs to that called Papilionacete, 
from papilio, a butterfly. The young botanist ne- 
ver can fail to identify a papilionaceous or pea- 
like flower, see Lathyrus odoratus. No. 369 . 
Orobus canescens is a neat ornament for the bor- 
der, rendered the more pleasing by the lightness 
and elegance of its pinnate leaves, &c ; which, like 
most other leaves of similar formation, possess some 
degree of irritability, and are influenced by the 
state of the atmosphere— sometimes spreading wide 
to receive the full benefit of light and heat ; at 
others, falling for protection or repose. It may be 
increased by division or raised from seeds. 
Don’s Syst. Bot, 2, 340. 
