GENERAL USES. 11 



religious customs, and so far as discovered the bas reliefs of the tombs 

 and monuments show no convincing evidences of their use. A bas 

 relief in the tomb of Thy at Sakkara, of which a part is even illustrated 

 in Baedekers Egypt (p. 139), represents several calves tethered in a 

 field of some forage plant or other in a manner quite resembling that 

 of the present day. This bas-relief is about -1,500 years old. In the 

 collection of seeds and dried plants in the Gizeh Museum which was 

 made by Professor Schweinfurt is a small bowl of the seed of an 

 unmistakable leguminous plant, probably a Medicago, from the temple 

 of Isis at Dendera. which was, however, of comparatively recent times, 

 being in the first Christian century. 



Dr. Schweinfurt, who is an authority on the botany of Egypt and 

 the ancient Egyptians, states that no picture, bas relief, name, or 

 authentic seeds of berseem had ever been discovered in any of the 

 tombs of Egypt. He discredited the correctness of certain finds made 

 at Kahun by Flinders Petrie and identified by Percy Newberry as 

 seeds of berseem. saying that there is in his mind a question as to 

 whether these came from really ancient tombs. The name berseem 

 bears a close resemblance to the Arabic name for lentil (" belsem" or 

 "bersem"), and Dr. Schweinfurt thinks it not unlikely that when the 

 Arabs conquered Egypt they applied this to the clover then cultivated 

 in the country. The plant has nowhere been discovered wild, but a 

 Byzantine variety (Trifolium aZexa/nd/rinum var. pAleoides, Boiss.) 

 exists at Kilsali. near Smyrna, and it is probable that the plant was 

 introduced into Egypt about the sixth century. 



GENERAL USES. 



Berseem is not only an annual clover, but it is a winter clover for 

 warm countries where irrigation is practiced. Where the conditions 

 of mild winter and abundant water supply for irrigation exist it can 

 scarcely fail to prove a most profitable introduction, for it starts into 

 growth with remarkable rapidity, outgrows most kinds of weeds, and 

 yields one of the most palatable and nutritious green fodders known. 

 Anyone having once seen it in Egypt can not fail to be impressed with 

 its great value. It resembles (mite closely when young our common 

 alfalfa, but its- flowering heads, although white, are in form like a loose- 

 headed variety of red clover. (PL I and PL VI. fig 1.) The hollow 

 stems are exceedingly succulent; in fact the whole plant is in every 

 way more delicate than either clover or alfalfa, and it is eaten not only 

 by domestic animals, but even by the fellahin/' 



The root system of the berseem is not a large one, but remarkable 

 for its abundant and succulent tubercules. (PL VIII. figs. 1 and '2: PL 



"The writer is aware that the fenugreek, which resembles berseem somewhat, is 

 a common green food of the peasants. 



