t 97° ]
ERVUM hirfutum.
Hairy Tare.
/?y
D1ADELPHIA Decandria.
G e n . C h a r . Stigma capitate, hairy all over.
S p e c . C h a r . Stalks many-flowered. Pods hairy,
each containing two feeds.
S y n . Ervum hirfutum. Linn. Sp. Pi. 1039. Sm. FI.
Brit. 776. Hudf. 321. With. 640. Hull. 166.
Relh. i ^ . Sibth. 225. Abbot. 159. Curt.Lond.
fafc. 1. t. 54. Dick/. H. Sicc.fafc. 8. 13.
Cracca minor. Rail Syn. 322.
B u t too common in corn-fields, to which in wet feafons
it is particularly deftru&ive; it alfo grows in various kinds of
cultivated ground, and alfo about hedges. It flowers and feeds
copioufly from June till autumn.
Root annual. Stems branched from the bottom, weak,
angular, nearly fmooth, leafy, climbing by means of branched
tendrils which terminate the common footftalks. Leaflets
numerous, alternate, elliptical, notched at the end. Stipulse
half-halberdfhaped, occafionally toothed. Flowers from about
5 to 7 on a longifh axillary ftalk, fmall, pale blue, with a dark
fpot on each fide of the point of the keel. Calyx not quite
fo long as the corolla, with 3 narrow teeth. Pods pendulous,
fhort, comprefled, hairy, containing two prominent feeds.
The efiential character of this genus is unqueftionably the
capitate ftigma, hairy on all tides; for the Linmean mark,
iC calyx in 3 divifions the length of the corolla,” only agrees
with Ervum Lens, which is a true Cicer, and the remaining
fpecies, except hirfutum and tetrafpermum, will be found to
agree much better both in habit and character with other
genera. See FI, Brit. 776.