SWEET CLOVER 



on poor soil which makes it a desirable acquisition. All the 

 Lupines are of similar appearance; they have palmately compound 

 leaves and showy flowers in terminal spikes or racemes. Of the 

 one hundred known species, seventy are North American, mainly 

 west of the Rocky Mountains. 



SWEET CLOVER, WHITE MELILOT 



Melildtus dlha. 



Melilotus, Greek, from mell, honey, and lotus, some leguminous 

 plant. 



Biennial, growing along roadsides and in waste 

 places, naturalized from Europe. Cultivated 

 under the name of Bokhara Clover. Flowers all 

 summer. 



Stem. — Erect or ascending, three to six feet 

 high; hard to break. 



Leaves. — Alternate, pinnately three-foliate; 

 leaflets oblong or slightly oblanceolate, finely 

 serrate, notched or rounded at apex. 



Flowers. — ^White, papilionaceous, home in 

 slender racemes two to six inches long; racemes 

 often one-sided. 



Pod. — Ovoid, wrinkled, one to two seeded. 



From many points of view Sweet Clover is 

 a weed; it no longer adorns the garden, but 

 lives on the roadside and loiters along the 

 railroad track. The bees love its tiny 

 blossoms heavy with nectar, and they never 

 forsake them so long as there is enough 



,,.,,P_ , PI, • Sweet Clover. Melildtus 



dayhght left for wanderers safely to wmg ^^j^ 



their way homeward. The plant once had a 

 place among sweet herbs because its leaves are fragrant in drying. 

 It has been cultivated under the name of Bokhara Clover, but 

 is reported poor among forage plants owing to the woody char- 

 acter of its stems. Sweet Clover in mass is beautiful, especially 



247 



