\A) Alfalfa; Lucerne (Medicago sativa) (Euro¬ 
pean ) is found growing wild in waste places or fields 
most anywhere in our range. It makes an excellent 
fodder for cattle and will grow in waste, sandy places 
where it is impossible to raise crops of hay. 
The stalk is smooth, slender, branching and erect; it 
grows from 1 to 2 feet high. The leaves are three-parted, 
on long slender stems with narrow stipules at their 
base. The purple flowers grow in short, loose racemes 
at the ends of the slender branches; the seed-pod is curi¬ 
ously twisted or coiled. 
(B) Cow Vetch; Blue Vetch (Vicia Cracca) is a 
trailing herb with a weak, angled stem; it is common 
on the borders of thickets or the edges of cultivated 
fields. The stem grows from two to three feet long and 
climbs over grass or low brush by means of small, 
slender tendrils at the ends of the leaves. 
The compound leaves are made up of twenty to thirty 
small, oval leaflets, each tipped with a tiny, sharp- 
pointed bristle. The light violet-colored, bean-like flow¬ 
ers grow in one-sided racemes. 
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