HOW TO GROW GOOD CLOVER. 131 



making; and, if of value for this purpose, we can 

 affirm from experience that a large yield can be got 

 from soils of a very inferior quality, as our experiments 

 on its growth have been made on a very stiff and 

 poor bed of forest marble clay. 



VI. Onobrtchis — Sainfoin. 



Sainfoin, or " holy fodder" of the French, is dis- 

 tinguished by its brilliant spike of pink variegated 

 flowers, which droop to one side, its winged leaves of 

 from six to eight pairs of oval leaflets, which are 

 entire, that is, undivided at the margin, and its 

 short, rounded, wrinkled, and spinose seed-vessels. 

 The forms in cultivation are — 



Onobrycliis saliva — Common Sainfoin. Onobrychis 

 saliva, var. bifera — Giant Sainfoin. Of these the 

 former has the preference in England, whilst the 

 latter is much grown in France. Our experiments 

 with both lead us to conclude, that although the 

 former flowers but once and the latter twice in the 

 season, the O. sativa still gives the greatest amount 

 of food, as the second crop of the giant sort is usually 

 poor and straggling, witli but little leaf ; while the 

 common sort sends up a thick growth of leaves after 

 being cut. 



The O. sativa bifera is but a variety of the 0. sativa, 

 as by long continuance of growth from the same 

 seed in this country it reverts to the common form ; 

 and hence the giant sort should be frequently renewed 

 from an imported stock. Sainfoin has been much 

 cultivated on calcareous soils, more especially on the 

 free-stones of the oolite rocks, and on the chalk, off 

 which formations it is scarcely known, except on some 

 calcareous sands in the eastern counties. In the lime- 



