PLANTS CULTIVATED FOR THEIR STEMS OR LEAVES. 113 



different dialects, and above all of a Sanskrit and modern 

 Hindu name, methi} There is a Persian name, schemlit, 

 and an Arab name, helheh;^ but none is known in 

 Hebrew.^ One of the names of the plant in ancient 

 Greek, tailis {rnXig), may, perhaps, be considered by 

 philologists as akin to the Sanskrit name,* but of this 

 I am no judge. The species may have been introduced 

 by the Aryans, and the primitive name have left no trace 

 in northern languages, since it can only live in the south 

 of Europe. 



Bird's Foot — Ornithopus sativus, Brotero ; 0. isth- 

 viocarpus, Cosson. 



The true bird's foot, wild and cultivated in Portugal, 

 was described for the first time in 1804 by Brotero,^ and 

 Cosson has distinguished it more clearly from allied 

 species.^ Some authors had confounded it with Orni- 

 thopus roseus of Dufour, and agriculturists have some- 

 times given it the name of a very different species, 

 0. perpusillus, which by reason of its small size is 

 unsuited for cultivation. It is only necessary to see 

 the pod of Omithopus sativus to make certain of the 

 species, for it is when ripe contracted at intervals and 

 considerably bent. If there are in the fields plants of a 

 similar appearance, but whose pods are straight and not 

 contracted, they are the result of a cross with 0. roseus, or, 

 if the pod is curved but not contracted, with 0. com- 

 pressus. From the appearance of these plants, it seems 

 that they might be grown in the same manner, and 

 would present, I suppose, the same advantages. 



The bird's foot is only suited to a dry and sandy soil. 

 It is an annual which furnishes in Portugal a very early 

 spring fodder. Its cultivation has been successfully in- 

 troduced into Campine.'^ 



* Piddington, Ivdpx. " AinsHe, Mat. Med. Ind., i. p. 130. 

 ^ Eosenniuiler, Bihl. Alferth. 



* As usual, Fick's dictionary of Indo-European languages does net 

 mention the name of this plant, which the English say is Sanskrit. 



* Brotero, Flora Lusitanica, ii. p. 160. 



® Oosson, Notes sur Quelques Playites Nouvelles ou Criiiques du Midi 

 de I'Espagne, p. 36. 



' Bon Jardinier, 1880, p. 512. 



