aggressive weeds. Although at least four species and one variety 

 of sweetclover are cultivated in the United States, white sweetclover 

 and yellow sweetclover are by far the most important and in recent 

 years have attained popularity as hay and forage plants. The high 

 coumarin content, which gives the herbage a bitter taste, is char- 

 acteristic of the genus, although livestock may be taught to relish 

 the two most widely cultivated species if pastured thereon early in 

 the season. Prolonged exposure to sunlight causes most of the 

 coumarin to volatilize ; consequently the cured hay loses much of its 

 bitter taste. There is probably a promising field for the develop- 

 ment of more drought-resistant sweetclover strains better adapted 

 to range conditions, finer-textured, less bitter tasting, and of im- 

 proved yield. 



Hubam sweetclover (M. cd'ba cm'nuci) , often called Hubam clover 

 or annual white sweetclover, an annual form of white sweetclover, 

 has recently aroused considerable interest among experimental plant 

 breeders, largely because of its variability and numerous strains. It 

 is a rank-growing, late-maturing variety which yields seed the first 

 year sown. Although inferior to the typical form of the species 

 because producing, in general, less forage and because its slender 

 root and annual habit are not so conducive to soil improvement, it 

 is a particularly valuable honey plant, its late blooms prolonging 

 the sweetclover nectar season. It is possible that sufficiently drought- 

 resistant and aggressive strains may yet be developed to give this 

 variety local value for artificial reseeding of badly depleted and 

 eroded range areas where a quick-growing, luxuriant, soil-improving 

 ground cover is needed, pending eventual establishment of perennial 

 species. 



The generic name Melilotus is the Latinized form of an old Greek 

 plant name, used by Aristotle and Theophrastus, which probably re- 

 fers to a true sweetclover; inelilotws, in turn, doubtless comes Irom 

 the Greek meli, honey, and lotos, a kind of wild clover, or trefoil, 

 used as feed by horses in the meadows about Sparta and Troy. 



