32 ENGLISH BOTANY. 
SPECIES II.—MELILOTUS ARVENSIS. Wallroth. 
Pirate CCCXLITI. 
Bab. Man. Brit. Bot. ed. v. p. 76. Benth. Handbook Brit. Fl. p. 163. Hook. & Arn. 
Brit. Fl. ed. viii. p. 100. 
Wallroth, Sched. Crit. p. 591. ries, Sum. Veg. Scand. p. 48. 
M. officinalis, “ Zam.” Koch, Syn. Fl. Germ. et Helv. ed. ii. p. 183. Gr. & Godr. 
Fl. de Fr. Vol. I. p. 402. 
M. Petitpierreana, “ Willdenow.” eich. Fl. Excurs. p. 498. 
Root slightly thickened and elongate. Stem erect, branched, 
especially near the base. Kacemes elongated, rather dense in 
flower, but lax in fruit. Corolla twice the length of the calyx. 
Standard longer than the wings, which exceed the keel in length. 
Pod shortly stipitate, shortly oval-ovoid, scarcely acuminated but 
apiculate at the apex, with very conspicuous transverse folds, 
which are at length replaced by seams on the faces, which are quite 
glabrous. | 
In waste places and roadsides. Rare, and probably native only 
in Essex, Herts, Cambridge, Norfolk, and Suffolk. In Kent and 
South Essex I have seen it growing plentifully in grass fields, 
doubtless introduced with continental seed, and I have specimens 
which grew under similar circumstances, from Yorkshire and 
Lancashire. In Scotland, found only on the ballast hills at St. 
David’s, Fifeshire. 
England, [Scotland,| Ireland. Biennial. Late Summer and 
Autumn. 
Closely resembling the two preceding, but not so tall, being 
from 1 to 3 feet high, most branched towards the base. Flowers 
about the size of M. alba, generally pale yellow, but some- 
times white, when it appears to be the M. Petitpierreana of 
Willdenow. Fruiting racemes more elongated than those of 
M. officinalis, but less so than those of M. alba. Pod % inch 
long, not black when ripe as in the two preceding, but brownish- 
olive, rounder and less acuminate at the apex than in either; when 
young it is marked with strongly-defined transverse wrinkles or 
folds, but when mature, the folds disappear, and in their places, or 
rather by the side of where they were, seams or furrows are to be 
found. In dried specimens in flower, the keel, standard, and 
wings being each a little longer than the other serves to distinguish 
this from the two preceding species. 
Field Melilot. 
French, Mélilot de Petitpierre. German, Gebrauchlicher Steinklee. 
