Don’s Gen. ityst. of Card, and Bot. v. ii. p. 198. — Bali. FI. Ball), p. 13, excl. var. p. 
— Jacob’s West Devon, and Cornw. FI. — Mack. Catal. of PI. of Irel. p. 67, excl. 
var. (3. ; FI. Ilibern. p. 80. — Lotus yibbus, Davies’ Welsh Bot. p. 71. — Lotus 
corniculata glabra minor , Kay’s Syn. p. 334. — Trifolium siliguosum minus, 
Johnson’s Gerarde, p. 1190. 
Localities. — In meadows, pastures, and on heaths and road-sides, abundant. 
Perennial. — Flowers from June to September. 
Root branching, long, somewhat woody, the fibres beset with 
small granulations. Stems numerous, slender, spreading on the 
ground in every direction, from 3 to 10 inches or a foot long, sim- 
ple or branched, solid, filled with pith, roundish towards the base, 
more angular upwards, leafy, either quite smooth or clothed more 
or less with small close-pressed hairs. Leaves ternate, on short, 
channelled petioles ; leaflets on very short partial stalks, inversely 
egg-shaped, entire, pointed, dark green above, glaucous beneath, 
smooth or clothed with close-pressed hairs ; the 2 lateral leaflets 
oblique. Stipulas in pairs, varying in size, sometimes larger and 
sometimes smaller than the leaflets, obliquely egg-shaped, pointed. 
Peduncles (flow er stalks ) axillary, solitary, upright or recumbent, 
angular, very long, each bearing from 2 to 10 flowers on short 
pedicels (partial flowerstalks ) , in a kind of flat umbel, accom- 
panied by a small ternate bractea. Calyx bell-shaped, its seg- 
ments the length of the tube, but much shorter than the corolla. 
Corolla bright yellow, often tinged with orange. Standard streaked 
with red at the base in front, and often quite red before expansion ; 
its claw much dilated and vaulted. Keel pale yellow. Filaments 
in their separate part all dilated under the anthers. Legumes 
narrow, spreading, nearly cylindrical, about an inch long, of a 
shining purplish-brown, smooth. Seeds kidney-shaped, blackish- 
green. — The flowers become greenish when dried ; in which re- 
spect they resemble those of the plants which produce indigo. 
This plant has been recommended for cultivation under the erroneous names 
of Milk-vetch and Astragalus glycyphy'llus, by the late Dr. Anderson, in 
his Agricultural Essays, as very excellent for fodder as well as for hay. Lin- 
naeus says, that cows, goats, and horses eat it, and that sheep and swine are not 
fond of it. Mr. Sinclair tells us that with regard to sheep, as far as his ob- 
servations have extended, they eat it in common with the herbage with which it 
is usually combined ; the flowers, he observes, appeared always untouched, and 
that, in dry pastures, little of the plant is seen or presented to cattle, except the 
flowers, on account of its diminutive growth in such situations. This, however, 
is nearly the case with white or Dutch clover; sheep seldom touch the flowers 
while any foliage is to be found. 
Lotus corniculatus is best adapted to poor soil, it does not spring early in 
the season, but continues to vegetate late in the autumn; it attains to a con- 
siderable height when growing among shrubs, and seems to lose its prostrate or 
trailing habit of growth entirely when in such situations. 
Some Botanists have considered Lotus major a variety of the present species, 
but the difference between them is obvious at the first sight; and this difference, 
Air. Sinclair states, remains permanent when the plant is raised from seed and 
cultivated on different soils. What renders a specific distinction of most im- 
portance to the farmer, is the difference which exists between them in an agri- 
cultural point of view. The weight of green food, or hay, produced by L. major 
is triple that of L. corniculatus, and its nutritive powers are little inferior to it, 
being as 9 to 8. It does not appear to be eaten by any cattle when in a green 
state ; but when made into hay with common grasses, sheep, oxen, and deer 
eat it without reluctance. — In moist clayey soils it would doubtless be a most 
profitable substitute for red clover, but the excess of bitter extractive and saline 
matters it contains, seems to forbid its adoption without a considerable admixture 
of other plants. See Hort. Gram. Wob. 
L. major is larger, more hairy, and of a more upright growth than L. corni- 
culatus, and the stem is hollow, and not filled with pith as in that species. 
