18 
BOTANY AS APPLIED TO VETERINARY SCIENCE. 
nishes a most valuable supply of green food through many 
months of the year. It affords the first cutting about the 
end of April, and may be cut three or four times until the 
end of October, yielding each time a large bulk. Each crop 
lasts from six to ten years. It is of great service during dry 
seasons ; its root, penetrating deep into the soil, receives a 
supply of moisture withdrawn from those plants whose roots 
are placed near the surface. 
According to Sir Humphrey Davy, it contains “ 2*3 per 
cent, of nutritive matters, as follow 7 : 
1*8 Mucilage, 
OT Sugar, 
04 Insoluble principles.” 
This analysis places it inferior to the clovers; the white 
clover containing 3*2, and the red clover 3*9 per cent., of nutri¬ 
tive matters. Its correctness has been doubted by some good 
authorities; but, be this as it may, it is certainly superior to 
them in the quantity it yields, the supply it affords in the 
early period of the year, and by its not being influenced to 
the same extent as they are during a dry season. 
Like all other green foods, it is chiefly valuable when 
given to horses intended for slow 7 w ork ; and also as food 
for cows, especially for milch cows, as it increases the quan¬ 
tity and enriches the quality of their milk. It is stated that 
<c one horse constantly employed in road-w r ork has been 
soiled upon rather less than a rood of lucerne, from the latter 
part of May till the latter part of November; and twenty- 
three farm horses have been kept in thoroughly good con¬ 
dition solely on eleven acres of lucerne during a period of 
twentv weeks.” It w r as thought of some value as a medi- 
cine by the ancient writers; and Mr. Youatt, in speaking of 
this plant and clover says, “ they speedily put forth both 
muscle and fat on the horse that is worn dow 7 n by labour, 
and they are almost a specific for hide-bound.” 
“ Onobrychis sativa (common saintfoin).—Leaves pinnate, 
nearly glabrous ; legumes toothed on the low 7 er margin, with 
elevated w 7 rinkles on the sides ; wings of the corolla as short 
as the calyx, the keel as long as the standard; stem 
elongated.”—(Hooker and Arnott.) This plant much re¬ 
sembles the lucerne in many of its characters. It is an in¬ 
digenous perennial plant, belonging to the “ natural order” 
Leguminosa , and to the genus Onobrychis. It is found 
growing wild in man} 7 of the chalk districts, and was first 
cultivated in this country about the 17th century. Its 
stem grows about two feet high, and it flowers about the 
