844 DIADELPHIA. DECANDRIA. Vicia. 
.■-■m- ---s=s--1 
More common than Var. 1. So nearly allied to it that there scarcely seems 
to be any fixed limits between them. Linn. Stem trailing. Leafits more 
pointed. Stipulce marked, but less distinctly, with the burnt dots. 
Flowers mostly solitary, but of the same colour of those of var. 1. It is 
clearly a variety of V . sativa , as it may be traced through all its stages 
from its smallest size up to the largest plants of V. sativa. Woodw. 
V. lathyroides (3, and possibly a. Huds. V. sativa y. FI. Brit. 
Sibthorp considers this as a distinct species, and gives the following spe¬ 
cific character. V. angustifolia. Legumens nearly sessile, about two 
together, expanding : lower leajits inversely heart-shaped, "with a point 
in the notch ; upper ones strap-shaped. FI. Ox. Smith latterly entertains 
a similar opinion, but while admitting V. angustifolia of Sibthorp to be 
the same plant with his own, insists thatthose who describe the flowers 
otherwise than solitary, have confounded this species with V. sativa var/* 
Whereas the author of FI. Ox. expressly declares his V. angustifolia to 
have <e legumes about two together/* How to reconcile this discrepancy 
we knownot, unless by abandoning the supposed new species, and stating, 
what our specimens would appear to indicate, that neither the size of 
the plant, the number or colour of the flowers, nor the darker or less 
apparent spots of the stipulae, afford invariable characteristics. E.) 
Shotover, and divers other places. Ray. (At Weymouth. Sir T. G. Cul- 
lum. Among short grass in Richmond gardens. Sir J. E. Smith. In the 
lanes in the valleys of Dartmoor. E.) A. May. 
V. se'pium. Legumes mostly four together, upright, smooth: leafits 
egg-shaped, very entire, obtuse, the outer ones gradually smaller. 
Kniph. 5 —( Hort. Gram. — E. Bot. 1515. E.) — Riv. Tetr. 56, V.sepium .— 
FI. Dan. 699 — Wale .— Trag. 624 — J. B. ii. 313. 2— Ger. 1052.1. and Em. 
1227. 2 — Fuchs. 110 — Matth. 547 — - Anderson — Lonic. i. 248. 1. 
(i Stems climbing with tendrils, two feet long, furrowed, but little branched. 
Calyx hairy. Legumen brown, smooth, dotted. FI. Brit. E.) Stems 
upright. Leaves alternate, winged ; leafits sometimes egg-spear-shaped, 
opposite; mid-rib lengthened out into a projecting point. Stipulce half¬ 
arrow-shaped, pointed, small. Tendril branched, terminal. Flowers 
three or four, in the bosom of upper-leaves. Calyx segments nearly 
equal. Blossom dull purple. Woodw. sometimes white. 
Bush Vetch. (From its habit of climbing up shrubs and bushes for sup¬ 
port. Welsh: Ffughysen y cloddiau . E.) Woods, hedges, pastures, 
meadows. P. May—June.* 
* This species shoots earlier in the spring than any other plant eaten by cattle, 
vegetates late in the autumn, and continues green all winter. But it is difficult to collect 
the seeds, as the pods burst and scatter them about; and, moreoA’er, hardly a third part of 
them will vegetate, being made the nidus of an insect. A patch of them sown in drills in 
a garden, was cut five times in the course of the second year, and produced twenty-four 
tons per acre of green food, which when dry would weigh nearly four tons and a half. 
Bath. Soc. iii. Mr. Swaynehas since observed to me that, though palatable to all kinds of cat¬ 
tle, it is difficult to cultivate on a large scale, the seeds being generally devoured by the larvae 
of a species of Attelabus, (probably A. punctiger (Apiou punctifrons , Kirby), said to resort 
to this Vetch only, E.) which larvae are the prey of a species of Ichneumon. Apion 
( Curculio ) subsulcatum , is also found upon it, (Mr. Sinclair states horses and oxen to be 
very fond of it. Its produce is very inferior on a clayey soil. E.) 
