180 SPECIES OF THE GENUS MELILOTUS—LAWSON. 
Art. IV.—ON THE CANADIAN SPECIES OF THE GENUS MELI- 
LOTUS.—By Pror. GEORGE Lawson, Pu. D., LL. D., 
BROS; Pie i sawe 
(Read March 9, 1885.) 
THE object of the following notes is to invite the attention of 
observers to the distribution of the species and varieties of 
Melilotus throughout Canada, so as to clear up some confusion 
that has arisen from imperfect observation, or mistake in 
nomenclature. 
The Melilott are old world plants, belonging originally to 
Europe, North Africa, and Asia; but we have in Canada at least 
two well-established species, and one of them, there is reason to 
believe, has been strengthening its hold ever since the days of 
the old French settlements at Quebec and in Acadia. In Europe, 
where these plants are more numerous in species and more 
abundant in quantity than with us, they are usually found 
growing on loose sandy soils; on railway embankments ; rubbish- 
heaps; river and sea-shore banks; where, from land-slides or 
gradual denudation, a close turf is prevented from forming, 
and, generally, where the surface soil has been denuded of its 
original vegetation and left loose enough for the growth of 
annual or biennial plants. They are especially prone to appear 
on ballast heaps. From the great centres of old world civilization 
they have spread as colonists over North and South America, to 
Bermuda, and to other parts of the world far distant from their 
original homes. 
The plants described by Tournefort under the generic name 
Melilotus were included by Linnezeus in his genus T'rifoliwm, 
which he divided into five sections. The first section consisted 
of the Meliloti, and, in the Species Plantarum, the capital letter 
M. for Melilotus is repeated on the margin before the trivial 
name of each species, thus : 
