HOW TO GROW GOOD CLOVER. 133 



go through with the burnet ; but this will be well 

 worth a better price, as the larger seeds will undoubt- 

 edly tend to produce a better crop. 



If, however, there should be any doubt about pure 

 sainfoin seed, we should recommend the decorticated 

 seed being used, as in it the burnet could not possibly 

 escape detection. 



As the history of burnet is so important in con- 

 nection with the sainfoin crop, it cannot be out of 

 place to introduce the following description of this 

 weed : — 



The Sangnisorba officinalis (false burnet), as a wild 

 plant, never attains any great size, and as it is a 

 denizen of dry calcareous pastures and broken ground 

 on limestones, and perfectly harmless in its properties 

 in this condition, it is scarcely noticeable as a weed ; 

 indeed, it is sometimes recommended for permanent 

 pasture admixture on calcareous uplands. There is, 

 however, a larger form of the false burnet, which is 

 now attracting considerable attention, as being by far 

 too constant an attendant upon sainfoin seed. 



This plant is referred by Professor Babington and 

 the Continental botanists to another species, viz., Pote- 

 rium muricatum, which is by them distinguished from 

 the P. sanguisorba ; but is " usually larger in all its 

 parts" (Bab.), with a larger and more decidedly four- 

 winged fruit. "We, however, agree with Bentham in 

 considering this to be a variety only, and, in fact, an 

 agrarian form, induced by its seed being gathered 

 with a crop and treated as a crop plant, so that its 

 larger form may be easily accounted for ; and we are 

 not wanting in evidence to show that, under cultiva- 

 tion, the P. sanguisorba greatly increases in size, 

 while, if left to grow wild, the cultivated form relapses 



