BOTANY AS APPLIED TO VETERINARY SCIENCE. 145 
whole to the foot, and turn up the clips, before making the 
division. 
Apologising for occupying so much of your valuable space, 
Believe me, 
Gentlemen, 
Your obedient servant, 
H. Withers, V.S.R.A. 
To the Editors of ‘ The Veterinarian .’ 
BOTANY AS APPLIED TO VETERINARY SCIENCE. 
By W. Watson, M.R.C.V.S., Rugby. 
[Continuedfrom p . 19*) 
Vicia (Vetch).—Under this head we have a large tribe 
of plants, belonging to the natural order Leguminosa. They 
may always be recognised by having stamens diadelphous 
(nine in one parcel and one separate), and a filiform style, 
with a tuft of hair beneath the stigma. Eight or ten species 
grow wild in this country, and a great number have been 
introduced from abroad. Many are cultivated for the large 
amount of valuable forage they produce, some for the food 
which their seeds yield to human beings, especially in France 
and Canada, and others for their great floral beauty. 
The following description of the variety more generally 
cultivated in this county, as food for our domesticated ani¬ 
mals, will give a brief insight to the characters of the whole 
of this genus: 
Vicia sativa —(common vetch). Flowers nearly sessile, 
mostly in pairs. Leaflets elliptic-oblong; lower ones abrupt. 
Stipules with a blackish depression beneath. Seeds orbi¬ 
cular, smooth (Lindley). This very familiar plant is found 
growing wild on the road-sides and hedge-rows of many 
parts of England. In its wild state it is of a somewhat 
dwarfish habit; but bv cultivation it assumes a much larger 
and more luxuriant growth, its climbing stems attaining a 
height of from two to three feet, having purple, sessile 
flowers, which appear in the latter end of May or beginning 
of June. 
There are two varieties of it, called the winter and summer 
tare. The former, being sown in the autumn, and with¬ 
standing the severities of winter, is generally consumed in 
the spring. The latter, being unable to resist the winter, is 
