LEGUMINOS. 405 
_ lotus of Dioscorides.* The author of the Makhzan-el-Adwiya 
gives Malilotus as the Greek name and Giah-i-kaisar as the _ 
Persian. He goes on to say that “there are two kinds, of 
 melilot, both plants are much alike, but the fruit of one is 
crescent-shaped with small roundish seeds something like fenu- 
greek, while the fruit of the other is much smaller and only 
slightly curved; both have an odour like fenugreek. The 
best fruit for medicinal purposes is hard, yellowish, white and 
aromatic, with yellow seeds.” The Mahometans, following ~ 
the Greeks, hold melilot in high esteem as a remedy in a great 
variety of disorders ; it is considered to be suppurative and 
_ slightly astringent, and is much used as a plaster to dispel 
tumours and cold swellings. The diseases in which it is 
- Melilotus alba, Lam., and M. parviflora, Desf., grow in India; 
_ the first species has the delicate odour of the European melilot. 
In the Makhzan an Indian variety of melilot is mentioned, 
_ which has very small fruit; it is called Pirang.t Coumarin, 
the odorous principle of melilot, when given to dogs in doses 
_ of 7 to 10 grains, produces great and even fatal depression, 
and in man doses of 30 to 60 grains occasion nausea, giddiness 
depression, vomiting and drowsiness. Kohler finds it to be a 
narcotic, which at first stimulates, but afterwards paralyzes the 
. Description.—Small, sickle-shaped, greyish yellow pods 
with a beak slightly curved outwards, distance from base to — 
apex 4 an inch; length of pod round the curve about one inch : 
it is grooved on both sides, and divided by a central partition 
us and Sertula campana of the 
4 ’ . pert : M lilot 
HeXiNros, Dios. iii., 43. Mel alagmata, Scrib. Comp. 
Romans, Plin, 21, 29, much used in preparing ™ 
258, et seg. ; vila, gene : 
+ Trigonella corniculata, Linn., Wight Ic. t. rag etal rsa 
Bengal as a vegetable in the cold weather, also at Se ea India 
called Tirapa. It is the Mélya of Sanskrit writers, and is used in 
for making chaplets. 
