PASTORAL AND AGRICULTURAL BOTANY 



off from the breast and forelimbs and swallowing it, so that in the stomach 

 and intestines it is rolled into a large ball the size of the fist. These balls 

 may cause the death of the animal in which they form by a stoppage of 

 the bowels. The same word has been applied by extension of the idea 

 to the balls of seaweed found on the Mediterranean Coasts. The Ligu- 

 rian grass-wrack, Posidonia oceanica, is found in the bay between the old 



town of Antibes and the projecting 

 Cap in such great quantities that the 

 shore is heaped high with its torn off 

 leaves. To the west of the Cap, on 

 the sands of the Golfe Jouan, round 

 balls of a light brown color and fibrous 

 structure are often found. These used 

 to be seen in chemists' shops under the 

 name of "pilae marinae. " They are 

 loose pieces of the rootstock of Posi- 

 donia covered with the frayed remains 

 of leaves. These are tossed about on 

 the beach by the waves until they are 

 formed into balls (aegagropilae, phyto- 

 bezoars), a decimetre in circumference. 

 A bezoar (or where caused by plant 

 materials, a phytobezoar) is a concre- 

 tion found in the digestive tract of 

 ruminants and formerly supposed to 

 be efficacious in preventing the fatal 

 PIG. i. DetaUs of the flower of the effects of poisons and still held in re- 

 5&^ < 2'tSrSS2; Pute in eastern countries, hence the 

 B, calyx opened out; c, one of the derivation of the word from the Persian 



*** (P^, expelling + zahr, 

 poison) becoming in Arabic badizahr, 

 bazahr and in new Latin bezoar. 



Clover Hair Balls. Since 1895, when Dr. F. V. Coville described the 

 result of cattle eating the crimson clover, Trifolium incarnatum, when in 

 the flowering condition, a large number of cases of the death of animals 

 by the formation of crimson clover phytobezoars have been reported. 

 The earlier evidence recorded by Coville in his bulletin is given herewith. 

 Mr. William P. Corsa forwarded to the Department of Agriculture a ball 



