GOUTWEED 183 



the pod falls owing to the pedicel rotting- away, or by the opening of 

 the pocl. 



Melilot is one of the sand-loving plants which subsist best on 

 a sand soil. It is common on Keuper Marl or the sands of the 

 Boulder Clay. 



A fungus, Peronospora vide?, grows upon it. The beetles Meli- 

 gethes flavipes, Apion tenue, A. meliloti, Sitones meliloti; and the Lepi- 

 doptera, Mazarine Blue {N'omiades {Lyccena) semiargus}, Small Angle 

 Shades (Euplexia lucipard], Latticed Heath (Strenia clathrata), Grass 

 Eggar (Lasiocampa trifolii} feed on it. 



Melilotus, Pliny, is from met, honey, lotus, Theophrastus; and the 

 second name refers to its use in medicine. It is called Hart's, King's, 

 or Plaister Clover, Whuttle Grass, Heartwort, King's Crown, Wild 

 Laburnum, the last in allusion to the resemblance between the flowers 

 a.nd Laburnum. 



In ancient Greece Melilot was worn in garlands and chaplets. It 

 was said to have sprung from the blood of a lion slain by the Emperor 

 Hadrian. Melilot smells like new-mown hay. It used to be much 

 cultivated, but is now replaced by Lucerne, Clover, and Sainfoin. In 

 Switzerland they use it to flavour Gruyere cheese, the flowers and 

 seeds being bruised and mixed with the curd before being pressed. 

 Doubtless the luxuriance of the meadows generally has much to do 

 with its richness. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



77. Melilotus officinalis, Lam. Stem tall, erect, leaflets narrow, 

 ovate, serrate, flowers in racemes, yellow, lateral, petals equal, legumes 

 hairy, wrinkled, acute, wings keeled. 



Goutweed (/Egopoclium Podagraria, L.) 



This plant is confined, so far as its present-day distribution is con- 

 cerned, to the North Temperate Zone, being found in Europe, except 

 Spain, and in Western Asia. In Great Britain it is absent from Pem- 

 broke, Micl Lanes, I. of Man, Hebrides, being thus well dispersed 

 south of Elgin. Watson regards it as a doubtful native, and a denizen 

 in North Britain. 



Goutweed is doubtless responsible for its distribution largely to the 

 former use made of it as a herb, endowed with various healing proper- 

 ties. To-day it is to be found on the outskirts of almost every village or 

 town, and very often near isolated houses of some age. It is a common 

 plant on waste ground, and is exceedingly rare far from a building of 



