«i8 Sino-Iranica 



and Hemsley 1 give as Chinese species Medicago denticulata, falcata, 1 

 and lupulina (the black Medick or nonsuch), M. lupulina "apparently 

 common, and from the most distant parts," and say with reference to 

 Medicago sativa that it is cultivated in northern China, and also occurs 

 in a wild state, though it is probably not indigenous. This "wild" 

 Medicago saliva may be an escape from cultivation. It is an interesting 

 point that those wild species are named ye mu-su ("wild alfalfa"), 

 which goes to show that these were observed by the Chinese only after 

 the introduction of the imported cultivated species. 3 Wu K'i-tsun 4 

 has figured two ye mu-su, following his illustration of the mu-su, — one 

 being Medicago lupulina, the other M. denticulata. 



The Japanese call the plant uma-goyali ("horse-nourishing"). 6 

 Matsumura 6 enumerates four species: M. sativa: murasaki ("purple") 

 umagoyaU; 1 M. denticulata: umagoyaH; M. lupulina: kometsubu- 

 umagoyaH; and M. minima: ko-umagoyaH. 



In the Tibetan dialect of Ladakh, alfalfa is known as ol. This word 

 refers to the Medicago sativa indigenous to Kashmir or possibly intro- 

 duced there from Iran. In Tibet proper the plant is unknown. In 

 Armenia occur Medicago sativa, M. falcata, M. agrestis, and M. 

 lupulina. 8 



Under the title "Notice sur la plante mou-sou ou luzerne chinoise 

 par C. de Skattschkoff, suivie d'une autre notice sur la menie plante 

 traduite du chinois par G. Pauthier," a brief article of 16 pages appeared 

 in Paris, 1864, as a reprint from the Revue de I 'Orient. 9 Skattschkoff, 

 who had spent seven years in Peking, subsequently became Russian 

 consul in Dsungaria, and he communicates valuable information on the 

 agriculture of Medicago in that region. He states that seeds of this 



1 Journal Linnean Soc, Vol. XXIII, p. 154. 



1 Attempts are being made to introduce and to cultivate this species in the 

 United States (cf. Oakley and Garver, Medicago Falcata, U. S. Department of 

 Agriculture, Bull. No. 428, 1917). 



8 We shall renew this experience in the case of the grape-vine and the walnut. 



4 Ci wu min H t'u k'ao, Ch. 3, pp. 58, 59. 



8 In the same manner, Manchu morxo is formed from morin ("horse") and 

 orxo ("grass"). 



• Shoku butsu-mei-i, Nos. 183-184. 



T The flower of this species is purple-colored. 



8 A. Beguinot and P. N. Diratzsuyan, Contributo alia flora dell' Armenia, 

 PS7- 



9 The work of Pauthier is limited to a translation of the notice on the plant in 

 the Ci wu min Si t'u k'ao. The name Yu-lou nun frequently occurring in this work 

 does not refer to a treatise on agriculture, as conceived by Pauthier, but is the literary 

 style of Wu K'i-tsun, author of that work. 



