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A N T H Y L L I S vulneraria.
Kidney Vetch, or Ladies Finger.
D I A D E L P H I A Decandria.
G e n . C h a r . Cal. inflated.' Pod roundifh, clothed with
the calyx. Stamina all connected at their bafe.
S p e c . C h a r . Herbaceous. Leaves pinnated, unequal.
Heads of flowers in pairs.
S y n , Anthyllis vulneraria. Linn. Sp. PI. 1012. HudJ.
F I. An. 313. With. Bot. Arr. 765. Relb. Cant. 271.
Vulneraria ruftica. Raii Syn. 325.
E have in a late number prefumed to animadvert on
the fallacy of common report as to the vulnerary powers of vegetables,
and here prefent a plant which has fcarcely report to
countenance its pretenfions, nor any thing elfe than a name,
for which we meet with no authority but the account of John
Bauhin, who, from the nature of his vaft work, was obliged to
truft much to others. The plant however is. highly worthy of
confideration as a food for cattle, thriving like the Saint-foin
in dry chalky places, and being favourable to the production
of milk, as indeed its natural affinities would appear to indicate.
It occurs in moll of our chalk and lime-ftone countries
abundantly, flowering from June to Auguft. The root is perennial
and woody. Stems round, hairy, nearly a foot high,
not quite erect, leafy, terminated by two heads of thick-fet
yellow flowers, with fingered braCteae, and a membranous hairy
calyx. One of thefe heads is lower than the other, and flowers
earlier. The leaves are pinnated, approaching to a lyrate form ;
their leaflets very unequal in fize, entire, of a fine green and
nearly fmooth above, hairy beneath and on their margin.
The flowers are fometimes found fcarlet, which Linnseus attributes
to a red clay foil; he alfo mentions their becoming
white in a white clay, but the latter variety we have not
obferved.