COMMON BIRD S-FOOT TREFOIL 435 



ovate with long petioles. Subsequently branches are produced in 

 the axils of the radical leaves, and upon them are borne pinnatifid 

 or compound pinnate leaves, each with a large terminal lobe. 



The inflorescences are dense heads of yellow flowers, the 

 calyces of which are inflated and covered with long downy 

 hairs. The androecium of the flower is monadelphous, the 

 gynaecium stalked, containing two ovules. 



The ripe fruit is a flattened legume and contains a single 

 seed, one half of which is yellow, the other half bright pale 

 green. 



The kidney vetch is a useful plant sown alone for sheep food 

 upon calcareous or marshy soils too poor to grow anything else. 

 It is capable of resisting prolonged drought, and makes nutritious 

 hay although it is scarcely suited to this purpose on account of 

 the procumbent character of the stems, much of which escapes 

 the scythe. 



Seed is sown in spring in drills 12 or 14 inches apart, at the 

 rate of 17 lbs. per acre. 



In mixtures, either for long or short leys on dry ground, the 

 kidney vetch is worthy of a place both on account of its nutritive 

 quality and its permanence. 



Bird's-foot Trefoils (Genus Lotus). 



21. Common Bird's-foot Trefoil (Lotus corniculatus L.). — An 

 herbaceous perennial common in dry pastures. From the 

 short thick rhizome spreading decumbent stems arise, each of 

 which is from 4 to i6 inches long. The leaves are pinnately 

 compound with five leaflets; the lowest pair of the latter are 

 separated considerably from the three upper ones, and resemble 

 the stipules of a trifoliate leaf. 



The flowers, five to ten in number, are arranged in umbel- 

 like cymes at the end of long slender axillary peduncles. 



The corolla of the flower is bright yellow, the 'standard' 

 being frequently tinged with deep orange or red. The fruit is 



