128 HOW TO GROAV GOOD CLOVER. 



however, smaller in all its parts, and, though a deni- 

 zen of stiff soils, occurs chiefly in a wild state on the 

 margins of fields and on hedge-banks. It might be 

 employed under the same circumstances as the L. 

 corniculatus, especially in thin clay-beds on upland 

 brashes ; but it hardly possesses such good qualities. 



3. Lotus major — Larger Bird's -foot Trefoil — is 

 much larger in all its parts than the other species. 

 It occurs in moist situations, about bushes in wet 

 land, in ditches, watercourses, and damp places 

 generally. We have experimented upon the growth 

 of this plant in artificial meadows, and from the size 

 which it attains quite early in summer, and the 

 quantity of wholesome keep it is capable of affording, 

 we are disposed to think well of it as an occasional 

 shifting crop, or it might be well combined with rye- 

 grass in deep stiff soils. 



IV. Medicago — Medick, 8fc. 



This genus is principally distinguished from Trifo- 

 lium by its twisted seed-pods, which in the Medicago 

 maculata (Spotted-leaved Medick) form quite a spiral 

 coil, ornamented with "a double fringe of stiff spines. 

 This plant is now becoming general as an agrarian 

 weed, having been greatly spread, owing to its inter- 

 mixture with foreign seeds of different kinds. 



The agricultural species are : — 



Medicago lupulina — Yellow Sickle Medick. — "Hop 

 trefoil" of the farmer, but not of the botanist, who 

 gives this name to the Trifolium procumbens (which 

 see). From this latter the medick is easily dis- 

 tinguished by its heads of naked, blackened, incurved 

 seed-vessels. As an agricultural plant it is of great 

 value, especially in mixtures called " seeds." It is a 



