370 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15. 



body in Florida or Texas wrote some years 

 ago that " away down south " sweet clover 

 makes a hard-wood tree, and stands over win- 

 ter; and they seemed to think it was the same 

 sweet clover we have here in the North. Who 

 can enlighten us?— Ed.] 



STILL, MORE ABOUT OUR VARIOUS SWEET 

 CLOVERS. 



Mr. Boot:— You express the belief that there 

 is no difference between the plants of yellow 

 and white sweet clover. On the following page 

 (266) of Gleanings you give a letter from Mr. 

 Esenhower, which I found interesting, though 

 I shall be obliged to disagree with the gentle- 

 man, or his authority, in regard to some points. 



He names but a few varieties of sweet clover. 

 I can add a little to his list, though I can not 

 complete it, for there are at least ten known 

 species — some authorities say twenty — many of 

 which have never yet been classified. He says: 

 "Gray's Manual does not thus classify meli- 

 lotus," while you say you have always made 

 Gray your siandard, etc. 



Gray is all right In the main, when yt)U keep 

 within his range; beyond that he counts for 

 nothing. His range ends at the 100th meridian, 

 where he is met by Prof. Coulter, with his 

 "Manual of the Rocky Mountains." How, 

 then, can Prof. Gray be expected to classify 

 plants belonging strictly to the Old World? 

 There are mistakes in his manual, it is true; 

 but they are those of omission rather than com- 

 mission. Strictly speaking, none of the sweet 

 clovers are natives of the United States; and 

 up to the present, M. officinalis and M. vulgaris 

 (or alba) are the only two that have ever taken 

 out papers of naturalization, and become bona- 

 fide citizens. You say you have M. cmrxilea. 

 (the blue-flowered melilot). I was intending to 

 send to Europe for seed of that variety; but if 

 you have it I shall not cross the ocean to ob- 

 tain it. 



Let me call attention to a somewhat curious 

 fact. English botanists do not refer to melilot 

 as sweet clover, but only as melilot, or melilot 

 clover— meaning honey clover, the adjective 

 sweet being of pure American origin. 



lam aware that authorities often differ on 

 many subjects, all of which is very confusing 

 to the earnest seeker after truth; and the best 

 thing left us is to discriminate as far as possible 

 between them. I have a good many authors 

 on botany. I have encyclopedias, and various 

 works of reference. How many Mr. Esenhower 

 may have I don't know; but certainly his and 

 mine don't seem to agree in all things. All 

 mine do agree in one thing; viz., that M. alba 

 or vulgaris are both correct as applied to the 

 white- flowered variety of sweet clover; also 

 that bokhara clover ana M. alba are one; 

 while the two varieties he mentions, M. arborea 

 and M. massimensis, are entirely ignored by 

 any work I have. 



The word massimensis, taken as it stands, 

 would mean, as translated from the Latin, a 

 monthly bloomer. AH the melilots are derived 

 from two Greek words— meZi, honey, and lotus, 

 meaning the quantity of honey it contains. 



Permit me now to quote from the New Ency- 

 clopaedic Dictionary, page 3087. constituting 

 what I regard as a true botanical classification 

 of the melilot. 



"Melilot, a genus of papilionaceous plants, 

 sub-tribe Trifolim. Leaves trifoliate, the flow- 

 ers in long racemes; calyx, five-toothed; petals 

 distinct, deciduous; keck, obtuse; legume, one 

 or few seeded indehiscent, longer than the 

 calyx. It is found in the warmer parts of the 

 Old World; known species, ten. Two are wild 

 in Britain— 3/. officinalis and M. alba. A third, 

 ilf. arvensis, is an escape. A decoction of the 

 first is emollient, and sometimes used on the 

 Continent in lotions and enemas. The second 

 produces swelling in the belly of cattle which 

 graze upon it. 



" The flowers of M. cccrulea are used to give 

 the peculiar odor and fla^'or to Schabzieger 

 cheese made in Switzerland, and more particu- 

 larly in Glarus; the plant is said to be a styptic. 



" The seed of M. parviflora is useful in diar- 

 rhea, especially of infants; the plant is es- 

 teemed in India as forming good pasture for 

 milch cattle." 



^[. officinalis is the common melilot. M. 

 arvensis is the field melilot, and M. parviflora 

 the many-flowered melilot. M. officinalis (yel- 

 low flower) is the only one of the list officinally 

 recognized by the chemists as of great medicinal 

 value. The word common, when used in a 

 botanical sense, becomes the distinguishing 

 name of some the best-known varieties of 

 plants. 



A word now in regard to the name bokhara. 

 No reason seems to be assigned for the word. 

 If, as you and others assert, it means hulled 

 seed of M. alba, why not with equal reason call 

 hulled seed of any of the clovers bokhara ? In 

 my opinion it is a local term only, and about as 

 misleading and Incorrect as the name hearts- 

 ease when aoplied to a polygonum. These 

 things serve but one purpose, and that a bad 

 one — to befog the average reader. 



Again, Mr. Root, you ask. " Why. if the yel- 

 low and white sweet clovers are not the same, 

 do we find stalks of the yellow growing among 

 the white?" Either of several agencies may 

 have effected this. First, by the bees carrying 

 pollen; second, by the wind; third, by a few 

 stray seeds becoming mixed with a bulk of the 

 white. Seed mixtures will take place some- 

 times, careful as we may try to be. 



Mrs. L. E. R. Lambkigger. 



Niobrara, Neb. 



[In regard to the term " bokhara." it is used 

 in various catalogs, and by wholesale seedsmen. 

 In a circular just at hand from Johnson & 



