190 



WEEDS OF THE FARM AND GARDEN 



Mountains to the Pacific coast, largely introduced witi. 

 clover seed. 



Yellow or Hop-clover (Trifolium agrarium, L.). A 

 slender, much-branched annual ; procumbent or erect ; six 

 inches to one foot long; stipules broad and pointed; 

 leaves obovate or obcordate ; flowers yellow, like the pre- 

 ceding; pod one-seeded. 



Bur Clover or Toothed Medick (Medi- 

 cago hispida, Gaertn.). Nearly smooth 

 annual with long, deep, wiry roots ; 

 spreading or ascending branches and 

 few hairs; after the spring rains it pro- 

 duces an abundance of dense foliage ; 

 leaflets with a notch at the end, crenu- 

 late ; dentate stipules ; flowers small in 

 little heads, yellow; pods in a loose 

 spiral. Bur clover occurs occasionally 

 in the eastern states, but is most abun- 

 dant on the Pacific coast, where it was 

 early introduced with other leguminous 

 trou- weedy plants. 



Black Medick (Medicago lupulina, L.). 

 "(Ada Annual with pubescent or somewhat 

 Hayden.) hairy stems spreading on the ground ; 



small leaflets, either notched at the end or pointed, with 

 stipules, ovate or lanceolate ; flowers yellow in an oblong 

 cylindrical head ; pod one-seeded, curved, not spiny, 

 black; not infrequent in the eastern states. Common in 

 California; considered a valuable plant. 



Common Vetch (Vicia sativa, L. ) . A smooth or slight- 

 ly hairy annual with simple stem growing from one to 

 two and one-half feet tall ; five to seven pairs of leaflets, 

 obovate-oblong to linear, notched at the tip, sometimes 

 mucronate ; one or two nearly sessile flowers borne in the 

 axils of the leaves, corolla violet-purple ; pod linear, sev- 

 eral seeded; seeds black. Quite generally distributed 



meadows. 



