318 



HISTORY OF THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 



jlants have been found upwards of fifty years 

 from the time of sowing. It has been cnltivated 

 upwards of a century on the Cotswold hills, and 

 three sorts of it have been traced down into stone 

 quarries from ten to twenty feet in length; and 

 in Germany, Von Thaer found them attain the 

 length of sixteen feet. In general, the great 

 enemy to the endurance of saint-foin is the grass 

 which accumulates and forms a close turf on the 

 Surface, and thus chokes up the plant.* 



Melilot, (melilotus.) The species of this 

 family are similar to the lotus, and are the favourite 

 resort of bees; hence the name from mel, honey, 

 and loUis. The m. officinalis, is one of the plants 

 which imparts the peculiar smell to hay. It is 

 also employed, and forms the chief ingredient, in 

 flavouring the Swiss cheeses called Gruyere. No 

 doubt the milk, obtained by the pasturage formed 

 of a mixture of various aromatic herbs, contri- 

 butes to the peculiar excellency of these cheeses; 

 but the flowers and seeds of the melilot, bruised 

 and mixed with the curd, imparts an additional 

 flavour. 



Trefoil, or Clover, (trifoliiim,) literally a 

 plant with three leaves. Two of the most valu- 

 able herbage plants, the red and white clover, 

 are the most remarkable species of this genus. 



"Notwithstanding," says Loudon, "all that 

 has been said of the superiority of lucern to 

 clover, and of the excellence of saint-foin, and 

 other plants of the pea tribe, yet the red clover 

 for mowing, and the white species for pasturage, 

 are, and probably ever will, be found to excel 

 all other plants in these respects. The yellow 

 clover, (t.prOQumbus,) and the cow or meadow 

 clover, (t. medium,) are also cultivated, but they 

 are far inferior to the others. The meadow clover 

 is a useful addition to the white sort, in laying 

 down permanent pastures. The yellow gi'ows 

 on poor soils, but the herbage is not much liked 

 by cattle. The soil best adapted for clover is a 

 deep sandy loam, which is favourable to its long 

 tap roots; but it will grow in any soil provided 

 it be dry. So congenial is calcareous matter to 

 clovers, that the mere strewing of lime on some 

 soils, will call into action clover seeds, which, it 

 would appear, have lain dormant forages. At least 

 this appears the most obvious way of account- 

 ing for the well known appearance of white clover 

 in such cases. The climate most suitable for the 

 clovers, as of most plants natives of Europe, is one 

 neither very hot, nor very cold and dry. Jlost 

 leguminous plants delight both in a dry soil and 

 climate, and warm temperature ; and the clover will 

 be found to produce most seed under such circum - 

 stances ; but as the production of seed is only in 

 some situations an object of the farmer's attention, 

 a season rather moist, provided it be warm, is al- 

 ways attended by the most bulky crops of clover 



* Loudon. 



herbage. The time of sowing seeds is generally 

 the spring, during the corn seed time, or from 

 February to May, but they may be also sown 

 from August till October; and when they are 

 sown by themselves, that is, unaccompanied by 

 any corn crop, this will be found the best sea- 

 son, as the young plants are less liable to be 

 dried up and impeded in their progress by the 

 sun than when alone in spring, and remaining 

 tender and imshaded during the hot and dry 

 weather of July. The manner of sowing is 

 almost always broad-cast. When sovra with 

 spring corn, clover and grass seeds are usually 

 put in immediately after the land has been pul- 

 verized by harrowing in the corn seed, and are 

 themselves covered by one course more of the 

 harrows; or if the corn is drilled, the small seeds 

 are sown immediately before or after hand hoe- 

 ing, and the land is then finished by a course of 

 the harrows. The quantity of seed varies from 

 eight to fourteen pounds per acre, according to 

 the intention of the crop, and the quantity of 

 grass seeds sown along with the clover. 



The clover and rye grass crop is either cut 

 green or made into hay, or fed upon by cattle. 

 The produce of clover hay, without any mixture 

 of rye gTass, on the best soils, is from two to 

 three tons per acre; and in this state, in the Lon- 

 don market, it generally sells 20 per cent, higher 

 than meadow hay, or clover and rye grass 

 mixed. 



The produce in seed may generally be from 

 three to four and five bushels per acre, weighing 

 from two to three hundred weight. 



Tree Medick, (medicago arlorea.) This 

 shrub is supposed to be the citi/sus of the ancients. 

 It flowers the greater part of the year, beginning 

 in April, and continuing till December, and with 

 its delicate stem and handsome leaves, fonns a 

 conspicuous ornament in the shrubbery. It 

 grows in great plenty in Abruzza, and other 

 parts of the kingdom of Naples, where the goats 

 feed on it, and their milk yields abundance of 

 cheese. 



It seems to be the shrub alluded to by Virgil 

 and Columella as the citysus. In this country, 

 however, it has not been found useful as an ar- 

 ticle of food for animals ; and, indeed, will not 

 grow luxuriantly except in gardens and wann 

 shrubbery ground. 



Lucern, (medicago aativa,) is a deep rooting 

 perennial plant, sending up numerous small and 

 clover-like shoots, with blue or violet spikes of 

 flowers. It is highly praised by the Roman 

 writers, and is also of great antiquity in Old 

 Spain, Italy, and the south of France; and is much 

 cultivated in Persia and Peru, where it is mown 

 all the year round. 



In Britain it excited httle attention tiU Harte 

 brought it into notice in 1757, and though much 

 extolled, has not yet found great reception in 



