ALSIKE CLOVER 121 



and macerated in still water, kept below the surface by weights for 

 about a fortnight, when it appears to be decaying and becomes soft. 

 It is then taken out and laid on grass for another fortnight, dew and 

 heat helping the decay. When dry it is tied up in bundles and stacked 

 for manufacture. 



If it is not steeped it is simply laid on the grass, a process known as 

 dew-retting. But it has latterly been simply dried, bound, and stacked 

 like corn, and the capsules and fibre separated by machinery, the fibre 

 being much stronger by this process. It is bleached by the machine 

 process by steeping in soft soap. The crushed seed yields an oil, used 

 in poultices, for oilcake, and for manure. 



The offensive nature of macerating it caused an Act, 33 Hen. VIII, 

 c. 17, to be enacted in order to stop it: 



No person shall water any hemp or flax in any river, running water, stream, brook 

 or other common pond where beasts are used to be watered, on pain of forfeiting for every 

 time so doing twenty shillings. 



Once hemp and flax grew in every garden. A premium was given 

 by Parliament in the eighteenth century to encourage the growing 

 of flax. 



After growing it on land it is necessary to manure the ground well, 

 and to have a rotation of crops. 



Urit enim lini campum seges. 



VIRGIL, Georgics, i, 77. 



It is used as an emollient for coughs and lung troubles. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



66. Linum usitatissimum, L. Stem tall, single, leaves broad, 

 distant, lanceolate, alternate, flowers large, blue, sepals ovate to lanceo- 

 late, petals notched. 



Alsike Clover (Trifolium hybridum, L.) 



Like other Leguminosae of quite modern date, the range of this 

 introduced plant is included in the North Temperate Zone, in Europe, 

 North Africa, and Western Asia. It is everywhere an introduction, 

 being found with other clovers, Sainfoin, Lucerne, &c., grown for 

 fodder. 



As a fodder plant, too, Alsike Clover is a common companion of 

 the cultivated Red and White Clovers. It is also found in many corn- 

 fields, and where roots are grown. It is frequent in old brickyards and 

 some types of quarry, and on railway embankments. This may be due 



