MILK-VETCH, or LIQUORICE-VETCH: A genus of the decandria order, belonging to the diadelphia class of plants; and in the natural method ranking under the 32d order, Papilionaceae. The pod is gibbous and bilocular. Of this genus there are 39 species. The common sort grows wild upon dry uncultivated places, and is recommended by Mr Anderson to be cultivated as proper food for cattle (see AGRICULTURE, no 60, 61.) The other species deserving notice is the tragacantha, a thorny bush growing in Crete, Asia, and Greece, which yields the gum tragacanth. This is of so strong a body, that a dram of it will give a pint of water the consistence of a syrup, which a whole ounce of gum Arabic is scarce sufficient to do. Hence its use for forming troches, and the like purposes, in preference to the other gums.

in anatomy. See there no 65.