MEDLAR. 



shaped, rugged and veiny, single-seeded, turn- 

 ing black when ripe. Sir J. E. Smith speaks 

 of this as " one of the most valuable of artifi- 

 cial grasses, affording excellent fodder for 

 sheep ;" but this good opinion is hardly borne 

 out by experience, for, though Arthur Young 

 makes favourable mention of it, Sinclair, in 

 his more recent experiments on the grasses, 

 observes that it is only fit for light soils, and 

 these must be deep, as the root penetrates to a 

 considerable depth. It does not appear to be 

 fit for separate cultivation, nor even to be em- 

 ployed in any large proportion in a mixture of 

 otherseeds; and the root being annual, its use is, 

 therefore, confined to the alternate husbandry. 



4. Spotted medick (M. maculata). This is 

 another annual species, growing on a gravelly 

 soil in the southern parts of England. The 

 root is fibrous, beset with little fleshy knobs. 

 Stems prostrate, various in length. Leaflets 

 inversely heart-shaped, spotted. Stipules di- 

 lated, sharply toothed. Flowers yellow, rather 

 small, two or three together. Legumes spiral, 

 depressed, fringed with long spreading bristles; 

 when ripe, brown, not black. This has been 

 mentioned, but not much recommended as a 

 fodder for cattle. 



5. Flat-toothed medick (M. muricata'). This 

 is a doubtful native, growing on the sea-coast. 

 It is an annual, and flowers in June and July. 



6. Little bur medick (M. minima). This is a 

 little prostrate annual species, growing in sandy 

 fields, but rare, clothed in every part with fine, 

 soft, rather silky hairs. 



MEDLAR (Mespilus). A genus of large- 

 growing fruit trees, which are very ornamental, 

 and therefore worth a place in every shrub- 

 bery. Any common soil suits them, and they 

 are readily increased by budding or grafting 

 on the common hawthorn, or they may be in- 

 creased by seeds, which do not vegetate till the 

 second year. 



The common medlar (M. Germanica) is indi- 

 genous, growing wild in hedges. The branches 

 of this tree are spreading, and thorny in a wild 

 state ; but the thorns disappear by culture, and 

 are not to be seen in gardens. Leaves decidu- 

 ous, lanceolate, 4 or 5 inches long, a little 

 downy. Flowers solitary, nearly sessile, ter- 

 minal, large, with white undulated petals, in- 

 odorous. Styles 5. Fruit depressed, con- 

 cave at the top, somewhat hairy; austere, not 

 eatable till it is mellowed by keeping. Culti- 

 vation has produced many varieties, differing 

 in size and flavour. The Dutch medlar is the 

 finest as to size, and the Nottingham the most 

 delicate in flavour. 



The wood, being hard and tough, resembling 

 that of the pear tree, is useful for various do- 

 mestic vessels, as well as for the smaller im- 

 plements of husbandry. 



MEDULLA, or MEDULLIN (Lat) Marrow. 

 In botany that tissue which constitutes the 

 pith of certain plants, as the pith of the sun- 

 flower. Medullary rays are the vertical plates 

 of cellular tissue, which radiate from the centre 

 of the stem of exogenous plants, through the 

 wood to the bark. They cause that appearance 

 in timber which carpenters call silver grain, 

 or flower of the wood. The medullary sheath is 

 a thin layer of vessels, which surround the 



MELILOT, COMMON. 



pulp of exogenous plants, and thence extend 

 into the leaves and parts of fructification. 



MELIC-GRASS (Melica, from mel, honey ; the 

 Italian name of the great millet). A genus of 

 perennial harsh grasses, with slender, oblong 

 panicles of elegant, often drooping, flowers, 

 greatly varied in the different species. There 

 are, in England, three indigenous species. 

 1. Wood melic-grass (M. uniflora). 2. Moun- 

 tain melic-grass (M. wutens), found in the 

 mountains of England and Scotland. 3. Pur- 

 ple melic-grass (M. carnled). 



For the purpose of pasture or hay, these 

 grasses are comparatively of no value. The 

 country people make of the tough straws a 

 neat kind of besoms, which they sell to the 

 neighbouring inhabitants as a cheap, and no 

 despicable substitute, for hair brooms: they 

 are even made into baskets where better mate- 

 rials are rare. Mr. George Sinclair made some 

 experiments on an exotic species, the fringed 

 or ciliated melic-grass (M. ci/iaf/i), which grows 

 wild in Germany on hilly grounds, downs, and 

 by the margins of woods; but the result of his 

 observations only went to prove that it was 

 one of the inferior grasses with respect to 

 produce, nutritive qualities, and reproductive 

 powers. 



MELILOT, COMMON, Melilot Trefoil, 

 King's clover, Hart's clover. PI. 10,6. (Trifo- 

 lium qffidnale.) This plant is very nearly allied 

 to the long-rooted clover: the tapering root, 

 however, appears to be strictly annual. The 

 lower leaves are oblong, wedge-shaped ; the 

 upper ones elliptical : they are more serrate, 

 and smaller in every respect than those of the 

 long-rooted clover. The flowers are smaller 

 and more drooping. The legume contains 

 often more than two seeds, which is seldom or 

 never the case in the long-rooted clover. 



In England the common melilot grows wild 

 in thickets, hedges, and the borders of fields, 

 sometimes among corn. Stem 2 or 3 feet high, 

 erect. Clusters unilateral, 2 inches or more 

 in length, on long axillary footstalks. Flowers 

 numerous, all drooping towards one side, of a 

 full yellow, veiny. Stipules awl-shaped. Le- 

 gumes prominent, acute, transversely wrinkled, 

 hairy. 



All the species of live-stock are said to eat 

 this clover. Ttoe whole plant in drying acquires 

 a scent like new hay, but far stronger. The 

 seeds, when mixed with bread-corn, give it a 

 nauseous flavour. This plant, or a variety of 

 it, is used in making the Swiss cheese called 

 schabzieger. It is ground in a mill, and mixed 

 with the curd into a kind of paste, which is 

 put into conical moulds, and there dried. See 



SCHABZIEGF.R. 



From the experience of Sinclair and others, 

 this plant appears to be very much inferior to 

 the long-rooted clover, and cannot be put to 

 any use for which that species is not equally 

 good or superior : it grows chiefly in clayey 

 soils. In very exposed situations it attains 

 only to a small size; while in such as are 

 sheltered it sometimes reaches to the height of 

 six feet. It ripens an abundance of seed, and 

 flowers in the third or last week of June. 

 Melilot is out of use in medicine, though it 

 served too long to give a green colour and an 

 3 Y 805 



