HOUTUS GRAMINEU8 WOBURNENSIS. 311 



LOTUS major. Greater Bird's-foot Trefoil. 



Specific charade?' : Heads depressed, many-flowered ; stems 

 erect, hollow ; legumes spreading, cylindrical ; claw of the 

 keel hnear, shorter, filaments not dilated. 



Sir J. E. Smith, in E. Bot. 



Obs. — Stems from one to two and a half feet high, according 

 as it is more or less drawn up by bushes, or exposed without 

 shade, more or less fringed with long loosely-spreading hairs; 

 leaves also more or less fringed with similar hairs ; flower- 

 heads when young very hairy, flowers from 6 to 12 in each head, 

 of a duller orange than the preceding species ; pod slender, 

 and exactly cylindrical. E. Bot. 2091. — I have raised this 

 plant from seed on two different soils, a siliceous sandy soil 

 and a clayey loam, and the above characters remain perma- 

 nent in both instances : it is surprising that two plants so 

 distinct in habits should have so long been considered 

 varieties only. 



Native of Britain, Root perennial, creeping. 



Experiments. — At the time of flowering, the produce from a 



clayey loam is — 



Produce per Acre . 

 dr. qr. lbs. 



Herbage, 32 oz. The produce per acre - - 21780 



80 dr. of grass weigh, when dry - 30 , > 814'^ 8 

 The produce of the space, ditto - 192 3 



The weight lost by the produce of one acre in drying 13637 8 

 64 dr. of grass afford of nutritive matter 2 ) r.^^. ^^ ^ 

 The produce of the space, ditto - 16 ) 



The weight of green food, or hay, is triple that of the foregoing 

 species, and its nutritive powers are very little inferior, being only 

 as 9 to 8. These two species of bird's-foot trefoil may be com- 

 pared to each other with respect to habits, in the same manner as 

 the white clover and perennial red clover; and were the latter 

 unknown, there appear to be no plants of the leguminous order, 

 that, in point of habits, would so well supply their place as the 

 common and greater bird's-foot trefoil. They are, however, 

 greatly inferior to the clovers. The white clover is superior to 

 the common bird's-foot trefoil in the quantity of nutritive matter 

 it affords, in the proportion of 5 to 4. It is much less productive 

 of herbage, and is much more difficult of cultivation, the seed 

 being afforded in much smaller quantities. The produce of the 



