The seeds are not large, being indeed smaller than the garden pea; but eaten to the very skin, as they invariably are, each is sufficient to the needs of its grub.
We must not fail to note their number.

I have counted more than twenty in a single pod, a number unknown in the case of the pea, even in the most prolific varieties.

Consequently this superb vetch is in general able to nourish without much loss the family confided to its pod.
Where the forest vetch is lacking, the Bruchus, none the less, bestows its habitual prodigality of eggs upon another vegetable of similar flavour, but incapable of nourishing all the grubs: for the example, the travelling vetch (_Vicia peregrina_) or the cultivated vetch (_Vicia sativa_).

The number of eggs remains high even upon insufficient pods, because the original food-plant offered a copious provision, both in the multiplicity and the size of the seeds.

If the Bruchus is really a stranger, let us regard the bean as the original food-plant; if indigenous, the large vetch.
Sometime in the remote past we received the pea, growing it at first in the prehistoric vegetable garden which already supplied the bean.