TRI 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



TRI 



699 



2. Trigonella Platycarpos ; Round-leaved Fenugreek. Le- 

 gumes peduncled, heaped, pendulous, oval, compressed; 

 stem diffused ; leaflets roundish, sharply serrated. Root 

 biennial, like the preceding; flowers in clusters, peduncled, 

 axillary, small, of a yellowish-white colour, appearing in 

 June, and seeding in September. Native of Siberia. 



3. Trigonella Striata. Legumes peduncled, nearly upright, 

 distant; peduncles longer than the leaf, erect, awnless at the 

 top, with five or six terminating flowers, not in a raceme, 

 sessile, yellow. Annual. Native of Abyssinia. 



4. Trigonella Polycerata; Broad-leaved or Spanish Fenu- 

 greek. Legumes subsessile, heaped, erect, nearly straight, 

 long, linear; peduncles awnless. Annual, the roots decaying 

 soon after the seeds are ripe ; stalks trailing, extending a foot 

 and half in length, and sending out several side-branches ; 

 flowers in axillary clusters, small, of a pale yellow colour, 

 sitting very close to the stalks, and appearing in July, and 

 the seed in autumn. Native of the south of Europe. 



5. Trigonella Hamosa; Egyptian Fenugreek. Legumes 

 peduncled, racemed, declined, hooked, round; peduncles 

 spiny, longer than the leaf. Stems decumbent, ascending ; 

 flowers deep yellow, in racemes, having the banner shorter 

 by half than the wings or keel. Native of Egypt. 



6. Trigonella Spinosa ; Thorny Fenugreek. Legumes sub- 

 peduncled, heaped, declined, sickle-shaped, compressed ; 

 peduncles thorny, very short. Stalks rising a foot high, 

 sending out several slender branches; flowers in clusters from 

 the sides of the branches, upon short peduncles, which stand 

 erect, and are armed with short spines, they are small, and 

 of a pale colour. Native of the island of Candia. 



7. Trigonella Corniculata ; Horse-shoe Fenugreek. Le- 

 gumes peduncled, heaped, declined, somewhat sickle-shaped ; 

 peduncle long, somewhat spiny. A hardy annual ; stems 

 numerous, erect ; flowers extremely sweet-scented, yellow. 

 It flowers in June and July. Native of the south of Europe. 



8. Trigonella Monspeliaca ; Trailing Fenugreek. Legumes 

 heaped, sessile, bowed, divaricated, inclined, short; pedun- 

 cle mucronate, unarmed. Stems prostrate, growing close to 

 the ground ; flowers very small, glomerate, sessile along the 

 stem; leaves fan-shaped, pubescent, with a very short down, 

 toothletted, nerved beneath, with the middle leaflet petioled. 

 It flowers in June and July. Native of France, Italy, and 

 Algiers. 



9. Trigonella Laciniata ; Jagged Fenugreek. Legumes pe- 

 duncled, subumbelled, elliptic ; leaflets wedge-form, toothed; 

 stipules laciniated. Stems filiform, even; peduncles axil- 

 lary, scarcely the length of the leaves, terminated by a soft 

 spinule, bearing a few yellow flowers in a sort of umbel. 

 Native of Egypt. 



10. Trigonella Foenum-Grfficum ; Common Fenugreek. Le- 

 gumes sessile, strict, nearly erect, somewhat sickle-shaped, 

 acuminate; stem erect, annual, hollow, herbaceous ; leaflets 

 oblong, oval, indented on their edges, on broad furrowed 

 footstalks. The flowers come out singly at each joint from 

 the axils, they are yellow, white, or pale blue, and sit very 

 close to the stalk. The whole plant has a strong odour: the 

 seeds are sometimes as many as eighteen, rhomboid, gibbous, 

 beaked, with a depressed line, yellow or saffron-coloured. 

 The seeds are brought to us from the south of France and 

 Germany, where they are annually sown for exportation. 

 The wild plant differs, in having long runners next the root, 

 all pressed close to the ground, the stem only being upright; 

 leaflets obovate, not obtusely lanceolate ; with the joints of 

 the leaves purple ; legumes more hairy. The seeds of Com- 

 mon Fenugreek have a strong disagreeable smell, and an 

 unctuous farinaceous taste, accompanied with a slight bitter- 



VOL. ii. 124. 



ishness. An ounce renders a pint of water thick and slimy. 

 To rectified spirits they give out the whole of their distin- 

 guishing smell and taste, and afterwards to water a strong fla- 

 vourless mucilage. They are never given internally, their prin- 

 cipal use being in cataplasms and fomentations, for softening, 

 maturing, and discussing tumours, and in emollient clysters. 

 Grooms and farriers use them for horses. Native of the 

 south of Europe. Propagation and Culture. The ground in 

 which this plant thrives best is a light hazel loam, not enriched 

 with dung ; this should be freed from the roots of weeds, 

 and well ploughed twice, and harrowed fine before the seeds 

 are sown. The best time to sow the seeds is the latter end 

 of August or beginning of September, when they should be 

 dropt into shallow drills, like peas. The rows should be 

 two feet asunder, and the seeds must be scattered one inch 

 distant from each other in the drills ; for if the plants are too 

 close together in the spring, they may be easily thinned with 

 the hoe when the ground is cleaned. If the seeds be sown 

 at the before-mentioned time, the plants will appear in thre"e 

 weeks or a month after ; and if the weeds appear at the same 

 time, the ground should be hoed over as soon as possible in 

 dry weather, to destroy them ; and when the plants are grown 

 an inch high, draw the earth up to their stems, in the same 

 manner as is practised for Peas ; and if a ridge of earth be 

 drawn up on the north or east side of each row, it will protect 

 them particularly from the pinching winds which blow from 

 both those quarters ; for although this plant will not be in 

 any danger from the frost in Ordinary winters, yet in very 

 severe frosts it is sometimes killed ; but as it will live in any 

 situation where Peas stand through the winter, there will be 

 no greater hazard of one crop than the other. In dry weather, 

 in the spring of the year, the ground must be hoed again to 

 kill the weeds, and the plants should be again earthed up, 

 in the same manner as for Peas; but there must be great 

 care taken to keep the ground as free from weeds as possible, 

 for if they be permitted to grow, they will soon advance above 

 the plants, and greatly weaken them; and when their pods 

 begin to form, they cannot be too much exposed to the sun 

 and air, whereby they will be less liable to suffer from moisture. 

 When the seeds are sown in autumn, the plants will grow 

 much stronger, and have many more side-branches than those 

 which come up in the spring, and will yield a greater crop of 

 seeds, and produce their flowers five or six weeks earlier, 

 besides having a better season to ripen ; but, in order to have 

 them better ripened, the tops of the plants should be cut off 

 with garden shears, about the middle of June, by which the 

 pods will be formed on the lower part of the stalks, which 

 will be greatly forwarded by topping the stalks in the same 

 way as is commonly practised for garden Beans ; for where 

 the plants are suffered to extend in length, the lower pods 

 often miscarry, or are less nourished, and those on the top 

 of the stalks are late before they ripen ; so, where the topping 

 of the plants is omitted, the pods at bottom will open and 

 cast out their seeds, before those above will be ripe ; there- 

 fore, to preserve the first, and cut off the other, will bo found 

 to be the best method ; for by so doing the pods will ripen 

 equally, and much earlier in the season. If the summer 

 prove warm, the seed will ripen in August, and theiplants 

 should then be cut off, and laid to dry for five or six days, 

 in which time they should be turned two or three times, that 

 the pods may dry equally; then the seeds may be either 

 threshed out in the field, or the haulm may be housed, to be 

 threshed at the convenience of the cultivator. 



11. Trigonella Indica ; Indian Fenugreek. Legumes ses- 

 sile, subsolitary, subfalcate ; leaflets quite entire ; stem dif- 

 fused, procumbent, not much branched ; leaves petioled ; 

 8P 



