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LATHYRUS Aphaca.
Yellow Vetchling.
DIADELPHIA Decandria.
G e n . C h a r . Style flattened, downy above, broader upwards.
Two upper fegments of the calyx fhorteft.
S p e c . C h a r . Stalks Angle*flowered. Tendrils without
leaves. Stipulae between heart-and arrow-thaped,
S y n . Lathyrus Aphaca. Linn. Sp. PI. 1029. Sm. FI.
Brit. 763. Hudf. 315. With. 632. Hull. 160.
Relh. 279. Sibth. 222. Curt. Lond.fafc. 5. #.51.
Aphaca. Rail Syn. 320.
F o u n d in the borders of gravelly corn-fields, but rarely.
Our fpecimen grew in Eflex. Mrs. Kett has obferved this
plant in a gravel-pit in the road from Norwich to Brooke.
The flowers appear from the end of May till towards Auguft.
The root is fmall and annual. Stem branched, weak, fup-
ported on other plants by its numerous alternate fimple leaflets
tendrils, each of which fprings from between a pair of large
oppofite fefiile ftipulae, of an oblong triangular form, either
quite entire, or (lightly toothed on each fide above their bafe,
Thefe ftipulae feem to perform the functions of leaves; for there
are no others, except a pair of minute ovate leaflets, on one
or two rudiments of tendrils, when the herb firft fprings up,
and which foon wither away. Thefe have been mentioned by
Linnaeus and Curtis, and the latter judicioufly points out a
fimilar phaenomenon in a New Holland Mimofa. We now
know feveral other fuch inftances in that genus. See Botany
of A. Holland, t. 13 and 16. and Tr. of Linn. Soc. v. 1. 253.
The flowers of L. Aphaca are fmall, folitary, drooping and
lemon-coloured; its calyx-teeth long and acute. The pod is
fmooth, like every part of the herbage, and the green of the
whole has a glaucous tinge,