in Extra-Tropical Countries. 



211 



Medicago sativa, Morison* 



The Lucerne, Purple Medick or Alfalfa. Orient and temperate 

 Western Asia, now spread through Middle and Southern Europe and 

 Middle Asia. The Romans brought it 470 years before the Christian 

 era from Media, hence the generic name (A. de Candolle). A 

 perennial fodder-herb of great importance, and largely utilized in most 

 countries with a temperate clime; perhaps descended from the European 

 and North-Asiatic Medicago falcata (Linne), the Yellow Medick, 

 which also deserves naturalization, especially on light or sandy cal- 

 careous soil; but that plant is less productive than the true Lucerne, 

 and does not resist occasional slight inundations so well, enduring 

 however a rougher clime. Lucerne keeps green and fresh in the 

 hottest season of the year, even in dry and comparatively barren 

 ground and on coast-sands, but develops itself for field-culture with the 

 greatest vigor on river-banks or when subjected to a judicious system 

 of irrigation, particularly in soil rich in lime. Its deeply penetrating 

 roots render the plant particularly fit for fixing embankments or 

 hindering the washing away of soil subject to occasional inundations. 

 The Peruvian variety (Alfalfa) resists drought and frost better than 

 the original European Lucerne. Dr. Curl, of New Zealand, allows 

 cattle to feed upon Alfalfa for two weeks, then takes them off and 

 puts sheep on for two weeks, to eat the Alfalfa close to the ground; 

 he then removes them and permits the Alfalfa to grow for a month, 

 when he repeats the process. He allows five large cattle or twenty 

 sheep to the acre. Lucerne is also an important honey-plant for bees. 

 Much iron in the soil or stagnant-water is detrimental to lucerne- 

 culture, while friable warm soil much promotes its growth. Langethal 

 records instances of lucerne having yielded on the same field under 

 favorable circumstances for fifteen years four or five cuts annually. 

 The chemical analysis of the fresh herb, collected very early in spring, 

 gave the following results : Starch 1*5, gum 2-1, unfermentable sugar 

 3, albumen 2*3, insoluble proteins 2*3, ash 2'3 per cent. (F*. v. Mueller 

 and L. Hummel). For sandy tracts a yellow variety. (M. media, 

 Persoon) deserves preference. To show how enormously plants are 

 affected in their mineral constituents by difference of soil, Lace has 

 analyzed the ashes of lucerne (a) from granitic soil, (b) chalky soil 

 with flints, (c) clayey with chalk, (d) very chalky, and found 



