M. Link on Legummous Fruiis^ 4’^' 
It grows wild only on cold soils, and never where the Aloe 
blossoms in the hedges ; its culture must therefore have been 
found out by the northern nations. As little do we find any 
traces among the ancients that another species of clover, Hedy- 
safum coronarium^ which is now a common article of fodder in 
Italy, or the Hedysarum Onohrycliis^ were cultivated. 
Among the plants. used as fodder by the ancients, is ranked the 
Cytisus, and on no plant of antiquity has so much been written as 
this. In 1731, there appeared at London A Dissertation on 
the Cytisus of the Ancients,” by Stephen Switzer, with which l am 
not acquainted. Afterwards it was noticed by Miller in his Garde- 
ners’ Dictionary, by Voss on the Georgies of Virgil, by Schneider 
on Columella, and by Sprengel in the treatise “ De Antiquitatibus 
Botanicis.” Voss and Sprengel, like the more ancient botanists, 
consider the Cytisus as Medicago arhorea ; Schneider as a Cy- 
tisus of the moderns ; and Miller, contrary to all testimonies, as 
no shrub at all. This contrariety deserves to be more particu- 
larly examined in another respect, 
Aristotle says (Hist. Anim. 1. iii. c. 18. § 8.), the Cytisus ever 
eases the milk of cows, and only hurts them when it is in blossom. 
Perhaps this passage gave the first opportunity of recommend- 
ing the Cytisus as fodder. Theophrastus only mentions the 
Cytisus in passing, (Hist. PI. 1. i. c. 6.) ; he ascribes to it a very 
hard wood, even in the inner parts of the stem,-- a circumstance 
which suits very well with Medicago arhorea ; but he says nothing 
at all as to its cultivation for fodder. In the time of the school 
of Alexandria, there appeared the work of Aristarchus on the 
Cytisus, to whom Democritus and others succeeded. Cynthos, 
one of the Cyclades, was celebrated for its excellent cheese : the 
cytisus grew there in great abundance ; the excellence of the 
cheese was ascribed to this, and along with the praises of the 
cytisus, its cultivation as a fodder plant was recommended. It 
is probable that this cytisus was the Medicago arhorea. Be- 
sides Theophrastus, its hard wood is mentioned by Pliny, (1. xvi. 
c. 38. 40.) ; and Cytisus laburnum, alpinus, the wood of which 
is not less hard, have bitter leaves, whicli no animal eats. But 
the cultivation of the cytisus seems to have been very limited and 
transient. Pliny says (1. 13. c. ^4.), Invenitur hie friiiex in 
Cytlmo msula, hide iranslaiiis In omnes Cyclades, mox in iirhcs 
