M E D 
The fii rub Cytifus, by Ariftomachus, the Athenian, 
as may be feen in Pliny [who fays much the fame as 
■V afro and Columella, from whom probably he has 
taken it,] is highly commended for food for fheep, 
and, being dry, for fvvine ; the utility [as to 'health 
and fattening, Dal] the fame as that ofErvum, but 
the fahety is quicker, a four-footed animal growing 
Fat with a little of it, fo that cattle fet light by their 
Barley. 
No food makes a greater quantity, nor better milk, 
and it excels all things as to the difeafes of cattle •, 
moreover, being given dry, or in a decodion of wa- 
ter mixed with wine, to nurfes whofe milk fails, it 
helps very much, and makes the children ftronger, 1 
take to their feet fooner j green, it is alfo. good >. . 
them, or dry, if it be made moift. 
Democritus and Ariftomachus fay, bees will ne wt- 
want food, if they have Cytifus enough, nor is any I 
thing cheaper. 
If, when the feed be fown, fhowers are wanting. Co- 
lumella direds, That it be watered the fifteen fol- 
lowing days. 
It is fown [according to the antients] after the equi- 
noxes. It is perfected in three years. It is mown 
in the vernal equinox [for it flourilhes all the win- 
ter, Dal.] with the cheap labour of a boy, or old 
woman. 
The Cytifus is hoary in afpect. If any one would 
exprefs its likenefs briefly, it is a fhrub of a broader 
fort of Trefoil. 
In winter, being, moiftened, ten pounds will fatisfy a 
horie, and a Ids quantity other animals. Being dry, 
it has more virtue, and a lefs quantity fatisfies. 
Thus fhrub was found in the ifle Cythnus, thence it 
was tranfiated into all the Cyclades, and afterwards 
into the cities of Greece, where it occafioned a great 
increafe of cneefe. 
It fears not the injury of heat nor cold, nor hail nor 
friow, and Hyginus adds, nor of enemies, becaufe 
the wood is of no value. 
Alfo Galen, in his book de Antid. writes, 44 Cytifus 
“ is a rub. In Myfia, in that part that is neareft to 
44 or. - province, there is a trad which they callBrot- 
44 ton, in which there is a place full of Cytifus, from 
44 the flowers of which, all agree, the bees make very 
44 much honey. 
44 It is a fruticofe plant j it rifes to the height of a 
44 Myrtle.” 
Tie fays, feven Ample leaves have the faculty of di- 
ge iting, mixed with warm water, as the leaves of 
Mallows : thus Galen. 
Cornarus too fecurely writes. That Cytifus either ne- 
ver came among the Germans, or that it perifhed long 
ago. From what Pliny fays. That it was very rare in 
Italy in his time, he cannot perfuade me, that nothing 
could grow in Germany, that was fcarce in Italy, jo. 
Bauh. 
Strabo, contrary to Diofcorides, Pliny, and Galen, 
will have the Cytifus to be a tree, and he likens it to 
the Balfatnum, an odoriferous tree, which probably 
was the occafion, that Cornarus thought this tree came 
neareft to a fhrub, becaufe Pliny faid the wood was of 
no value, therefore he perfuades himfelf, that it pro- 
duces woody branches, not tender and foft, as in an 
herb. 
But Virgil fliews it is neither a tree nor a fhrub, 
when he fays : 
44 __ — _ Non me pafeente, capeliae, 
44 Flore n tem Cytifum, & falices capretis amaras, 5 ’ 
[Buc. Eclog. j. 
44 Sic Cytifo paftse diflendunt ubera vaccse.” 
Eclog. 9. 
44 Nec Cytifo faturantur apes, nec fronde cape Ike.” 
Eclog. 10. 
Virgil, I fay, indicates very plainly in thefe verfes, 
that it is neither a tree nor a fhrub, for goats do not 
ufe it * ffor can they, if they were wont , to eat flowery 
trees. Neither will what Cornarus fays avail, when 
ME D 
Plinyfays the wood is of no value, thatitfnuft of 
neceffity produce woody branches j - nay, the contrary 
is rattier true, that mere is. no value in the wood, 
that it bears viny pliable branches, with which the , 
goats cannot be fatiated. 
Theocritus very plainly exprefies it. That Cytifus is 
a very grateful food to goats : 
*H 0U% TOV XVTUTQV, Cilya S'lCOKH. 
u Capra Cytifum,' lupus capellam fequitur 
Which is thus imitated by Virgil : 
44 Torva learn a lupum fequitur, lupus ipfe capellam: 
44 Florentem Cytifum fequitur lafeiva capelia.” 
Amatus, to avoid this difficulty, concludes Cytifus to 
be between trees and fhrubs, by the difference of ge- 
•- S to be diftinguifhed by Pliny, that, as a tree, it 
r : be ufed in the feminine gender, as a fhrub in 
me mafculine, which is not. worth the minding. 
oiumella ufes Cytifus in the feminine gender, and 
Theocritus and others in the mafeuline; as Cob. 
Conft. in Lex. who writes that it was called dp*o<pv 
and Theocritus calls this forub >AIsaL, and others, 
x\f Turov ; others again t«Aij. 
Of Cythnus, or, as others, of Cythifa, the name of 
an ifland, as Severius has it. 
Among thefe words of Diofcorides in feme manu- 
scripts, there are found, falfely written, in fame, Te- 
linen Triphyllon, in others Loturn Grandem. 
Diofcorides 5 s description of the Cytifus is not fo ac- 
curate, that from it the true Cytifus may be afeer- 
tained. 
Although in the feveral fpecies of Cytifufes it is hard 
to judge which is the legitimate Cy tifus fpecified by 
the antients j the moft fkilfuptake it to be that which 
Maranthus has deferibed, which is our Medica, which 
has been ranged under the genus of Cytifus, by moft 
of the writers before Dr. Tournefort, who eftablifhed 
the genus of Medicago, on account of the feed-veffel 
being like that of Medica, or Snail Trefoil. 
This plant grows* in great plenty at Abruzzo, where 
the goats feed upon it, and from their milk are made 
great quantities of cheefe. I have had both feeds and 
fpecimens of the plant fent me from thence, by per- 
ions of the greateft fkill in botany, who have allured 
me, that this plant is generally fuppofed, by all the 
people of learning in that country, to be the plant 
mentioned by Virgil. 
Trifolium fruticans, according to Dodqnaeus, orPo- 
lemonium, according to fome, is improperly called, 
Cytifus by many. 
Trifolium candidum Dodon. by fome is faid to be 
the Cytifus of Columella, concerning which, fee Lib. 
Hift. n. 9. 1 7. of Trifolious herbs. 
Tragus writes. That their opinion is to be rejected, 
who interpret the Trifolium pratenfe to be a Cytifus. 
Some contend the Trifolium candidum of Dodon. the 
Redtum Melilotum vulgarem, to be the Cytifus of 
the antients, as Dodonseus fays, but they have not hit 
on the truth. 
Ruellius writes, That he was afraid that Marcellus 
took Cytifus for Medica. 
MEDICAGO. Lin. Gen. Plant. 805. Medica. 
Tourn. Inft. R. H. 410. tab. 231. Snail Trefoil. 
The Characters are, 
The flower hath a cylindrical ereEl empalement ofl one leaf \ 
which is cut at the brim into five equal acute flegments . 
The flower is of the butterfly kind , having an oval erect 
ftandard , whofe borders are reflexed: The wings are ob- 
lofig, oval , and fixed to the keel by an appendix. The 
keel is oblong , bifid, obtufe , and r flexed. It hath ten 
ftmnina , nine of which are joined,, and the other is Jingle, 
terminated by flmall flummits , and an oblong germen, which 
fits upon a floor t Jlyle , is involved with theftarxina by the 
keel , and crowned by a very flmall flugrna. The germen 
afterward turns to a long comprejfed pod , twifted into the 
form of a flnail, inclojng many kidney -floaped feeds.- 
This 
