these leaves must be those of a young shoot of the garden Robinia, False Acacia, as it is commonly called, which had sprung up from seeds brought from some neighbouring garden. Both in form and colour they resemble such a shoot, but their large stipules, free from each other, and from the leafstalk, form a marked feature of this leaf, and in more fully grown specimens of the Milk-vetch, the prostrate stems, sometimes two or three feet long, and the dull yellow flowers, render this plant easy of distinction from all others. The legumes are sometimes an inch and a half long, and are curved in the form of a sickle.

This plant is called Sweet Milk-vetch, from the sweetness of its leaves and roots, which are on the first taste pleasant, but leave a bitter and disagreeable flavour on the tongue. This causes them to be disliked by cattle, and they are left quite untouched when occurring among the pasture. Were it not for this, the plant would doubtless have been cultivated, yielding, as it does by its large leaves, so great an amount of herbage. Several species of Astragalus, in other lands, have the sweet flavour without the succeeding bitterness. Thus the roots of Astragalus Aboriginórum are long and yellow, like liquorice roots, and in Arctic America, where it grows wild, it is collected as an article of food by the Crees and Stone Indians. The roots of another species, Astragalus ammodytes, which is also sweet, are used in Siberia instead of liquorice.

We have but three native species of Astragalus, some of which are sufficiently important to form a feature in our landscape. There are vast tracts, however, in other