198 



It does not spring eariy in the season, but continues to vegetate late in the autumn. I^ 

 irrigated meadows, where the produce is generally more succulent than in dry pastures, this 

 plant cannot with safety be recommended, at least in any considerahle quantity. It is y^^^^ 

 partial to dry soils than the next species, io/M* major; it attains to a considerable height when 

 growing among shrubs, and seems to lose' its prostrate or trailing habit of growth entirely, ^vhen 



in such situations. 



It comes into flower about the second Week of June, and the seed is ripe about the end of 

 July, and successively till the end of autumn. ; 



up 



Lotus major. Greater Bird's-foot Trefoil. 



b 



Specific character: Heads depressed, many-flowered; stems erect, liollow; legumes spread- 

 ing, cylindrical; claw of the keel linear, shorter, filaments not dilated. 

 Dr. Smith, in E. Bot. 



r 



Obs. — Stems from one to two and a half feet high, according as it is more or less drawn 

 by bushes, or exposed without shade, more or less fringed with long loosely-spreading 

 hairs; leaves also more or less fringed with similar hairs; flowcr-hcads when young very 

 hairy, flowers from 6 to 12 in each head, of a duller orange than the precediug species; 

 pod slender, and exactly cylindrical. E. Bot. 2091. — I have raised this plant from seed on 

 two difierent soils, a siliceous sandy soil and a clayey loam, and the above characters re- 



r 



main permanent in both instances : it is surprising that two plants so distinct in habits, 



should have so long been considered varieties only. 

 Native of Britain. Root perennial, creeping. 

 Experiments. — At the time of flowering, the produce from a clayey loam, is. 



dr. 



30 



im 



Herbage, 32 oz. The produce per acre 



80 dr. of herbage weigh, when dry 



The produce of the space, ditto 



The weight lost by the produce of one acre in drying 



64 dr. of grass afford of nutritive matter 



The produce of the space, ditto - «■ 



qr. 



oz. 



S4S4S0 



lbs. 



21780 



130G8 



8142 8 



13637 8 



2 

 16 



10890 



680 10 



The welglit of green food, or hay, is triple that of the foregoing species, and its nutri- 

 tive powers are very little inferior, being only as 9 to 8. Tliese two species of Bird's-foot Tre- 

 foil may be compared to each other with respect to habits, in the same manner as the White 

 Clover and Perennial Red Clover ; and were the latter unknown, there appear to be no plants 

 of tbe leguminous order, that, in point of habits, would so well supply their place as the Com- 

 mon and Greater Bird's-foot Trefoil. They are, however, greatly inferior to the Clovers. 

 White Clover is superior to the Common Bird's-foot Trefoil in the quantity of nutritive matter it 

 aifords, in the proportion of 5 to 4. ' It is much less productive of herbage, and is much more 

 difficult of cultivation, the seed being afforded in much smaller quantities. The produce of the 

 Greater Bird's-foot Trefoil is superior to that of the Perennial Red Clover, on tenacious or moist 

 soils, and on drier, ai,d on richer soils of the first quality; but the produce is inferior, in the 



The 



