GIANT SAINFOIN 433 



The first foliage-leaves of the seedling are small and simple 

 with long petioles; the second and third are trifoliate, all the 

 subsequent ones -being pinnately compound with six to twelve 

 pairs of opposite leaflets and a terminal one. The leaflets are 

 narrow, obovate, and entire. 



The inflorescences are axillary, compact racemes, the peduncles 

 of which are long, slender, and erect. Each flower is about half 

 an inch long, rosy-red, with darker pink veins, papilionaceous, 

 the ' wing ' petals very short. 



The fruit is almost semi-circular in outline and about a quarter 

 of an inch long, its pericarp covered with a coarse raised net- 

 work of hnes on which are spiny projections (Fig. 206) ; it is 

 indehiscent, and contains a single olive brown seed, in shape 

 like a small bean. 



Sainfoin is a valuable fodder plant for growth on dry, barren 

 calcareous soils. 



It resists frost better than lucerne, but damp sub-soils are 

 destructive of both plants. 



It is extensively used as sheep food, and cut green for soiling 

 cattle and horses. The produce makes excellent hay of very 

 high nutritive value when cut just in flower. 



Two cultivated varieties are met with, namely, (i) The Old 

 Common Sainfoin, and (2) Giant Sainfoin. 



The former variety is more lasting than the latter, a ley of it 

 being generally useful during four to seven years. It gives only 

 one cut per annum, after which the subsequent growth is 

 grazed. 



Its stems are shorter, and the flowering period a week or ten 

 days later than the giant variety. 



The giant sainfoin is a more rapid and luxuriant grower, and 

 is usually kept down only one or two seasons, during which it 

 yields two or more heavy crops per annum. If seed is required 

 the plant is cut once and the second growth of the season 

 reserved. 



2 E 



