840 
ON PLANTS IN RELATION TO ANIMALS. 
therefore, its seed is to be obtained from the seedsman, but 
the truth is the section of clovers now described do not yield 
enough herbage, as a rule, to make them profitable as crop 
plants, and hence their places have been supplied by some 
clover allies, and notably that of a plant known by the same 
trivial name, namely, hop trefoil; its botanical name, and 
with generic and specific characters, is very distinct. 
This plant has been referred to before under the head of 
Medicago lupulina , the hop trefoil of the farmer, but not of 
the botanist.* 
At present we pen a few remarks on this medick, with the 
view of establishing its differences when compared with the 
true clovers, as also to furnish some additional notes upon 
its value as a fodder plant : 
Characters or Hop Clover. 
Trifolium procumbens. 
Stem procumbent; leaves trifoli¬ 
ate ; flowers yellow, persistent, turn¬ 
ing brown when ripe ; pod straight, 
and covered over by the dried floral 
membranes; seed kidney-shaped. 
When seen together in a growing state the difference is 
very marked, as the rounded or ovate head of the clover 
has the appearance at first sight of a small strobile or bunch 
of hops, being, when ripe, of a yellowish-brown hue, like the 
hop; whereas the hop trefoil, medick, or nonsuch, in the 
ripe state, shows a bunch of black incurved legumes. 
The black medick is one of the most extensively used of 
the clover allies; the yellow clovers, indeed, were more 
grown until this plant was tried, when it was found that in 
cultivation it increased both in size and in succulency. It 
is much relished by all kinds of stock, both in the fresh and 
the dried state. 
It is usually sown with ray-grass in the barley crops, in 
which much of it will seed the first year ; such seed being 
sown, thickens the crop next season, or it may be that sheep 
may lightly graze the young seeds, and this will not do the 
injury to the medick as it would to common clovers. 
As a wild plant, the black medick will be found every¬ 
where, especially on calcareous soils, for, like its allies the 
clovers, it is partial to soil with lime in its composition, and 
hence all cases where it is grown lime should form a part of 
any top dressing. 
* See Veterinarian , vol. liii, p. 471, 
Characters of Nonsuch 
Medick. 
Medicago lupulina . 
Stem procumbent; leaves trifoli¬ 
ate ; flowers yellow, deciduous • pod 
incurved, green at first, but black 
when ripe ; seed ovoid. 
