France. It is still grown to great extent in Persia and Peru, and mowed in both countries all the year round. British writers on agriculture mention it as occasionally grown in this kingdom in the olden times; but its culture was not general till about the middle of last century. Our name of Lucerne is derived from the patois of Languedoc, in which the plant is called Lauserda. The species is also known in France as le Fois de Bourgogne; and in Spain is called Alfalfa. It is a deeply-rooting plant, but being less hardy than red clover, and requiring longer time for its full growth, is less frequently sown by farmers. This plant is very widely diffused in Afghanistan, and grows in profusion with several of the Trefoils in the meadows near Cabul. These are rendered quite beautiful in the summer season by the abundance of the handsome clover called Trifolium giganteum, and which, with the Lucerne, furnishes abundant crops of hay to the people of the country.

6. M. falcáta (Yellow Sickle Medick).—Stem bending, slightly hairy; leaflets oblong, toothed; flowers numerous in racemes; legume flat, downy, sickle-shaped, or once twisted. Plant perennial. This Medick is very similar to the Lucerne, but it is a larger plant, and its flowers are usually yellow, though occasionally violet-coloured. It is sometimes called Swiss Lucerne, because it is often cultured in some poor soils in Switzerland. It is rare in our country, and is not truly wild, though found in some counties on dry gravelly banks, or on old walls. Its flowers appear in June and July.

6. MELILÓTUS.

1. M. officinalis (Common Yellow Melilot).-Stems erect; leaflets narrow, inversely egg-shaped, and serrated; flowers in one-sided stalked racemes; petals equal in length; legumes two-seeded, wrinkled. Plant annual. This can hardly be called a common plant, though growing abundantly in some places, as in several parts of Cambridgeshire. It has an herbaceous branched stem, two or three feet high, its pale yellow flowers are produced from June to August, and the seed vessels are long and large in proportion to the flowers. When growing it has a strong and somewhat disagreeable odour, but while drying, its scent is very sweet, and like that of new-mown hay; nor is this scent lost for some years when the plant has been placed in the herbarium. The hay made from this Melilot is more fragrant than that usually made of the meadow grasses. This pleasant odour is owing to a volatile principle, called Coumarin, which is well known as giving to the Tonka bean its powerful aroma, and which exists abundantly in the flower of this species, and of the blue Melilot. A distilled water made of the flowers, and slightly perfumed, was formerly sold by druggists in France, and praised for its medicinal virtues, though these must have been very slight. An infusion of the blossoms was in that country also much used as a remedy for ophthalmia, and the author saw the plant a few years since, hanging on strings to dry, in the shops at Paris, and was told that it was used for a variety of maladies. The plant is found by waysides and among

1. T. répens (White or Dutch Clover).—Flowers in roundish heads, stalked, finally bent back; calyx teeth unequal; legumes 4-seeded; stems creeping. Perennial. The Dutch Clover is too common on our meadows, and by our every country walk, to need minute description. Its white blossoms are to be seen from May till September, tinged sometimes with delicate pink, at others with chocolate colour. The flower is on a partial stalk, and when it fades this footstalk bends down, and the legumes droop among the brown withered corollas. The blossom has a sweet odour, which, however, is not so powerful as that of the purple clover. The leaflets have often a dark spot in the middle, and very generally a white line also, and their edges are slightly serrated.

This and the purple meadow clover are most valuable fodder plants. They are commonly cultivated in this country for pasturage, and one acre of land sown with clovers is found to give as much food to horses and cattle as would be yielded by three or four acres of land sown with grasses. Chalky soils are peculiarly favourable to their growth, and several of the trefoils are found remarkably united with the superstratum of mountain lime. If lime is powdered and thrown upon the soil, a crop of white clover will sometimes arise where it had not been previously cultivated or known to exist. Mr. Moore stated, some years since, to the Philosophical

7. TRIGONELLA (Fenugreek).

1. T. ornithopodioides (Bird's-foot Fenugreek).-Stems decumbent; flowers about two or three together; legumes compressed, twice as long as the calyx, and having about eight seeds; leaflets inversely heart-shaped. Plant annual. This is a very little plant, and not a very common one, growing in sandy and dry pastures, and heaths, often in the neighbourhood of the sea, and bearing very small yellow flowers in June and July. The spreading stems are from two to five inches long, and its seed-pods are very large for the size of the plant. This is our only wild species, and is too small to be of any use; but a species of the south of Europe, which is very common on fields and waste places about Montpelier, the Common Fenugreek, (Trigonella FanumGræcum,) was so called by the Romans from their having adopted from the Greeks the practice of cutting and drying it for fodder. This plant was formerly very extensively cultivated in Italy, and is still sown by farmers in the south of Europe. The seeds are farinaceous, slightly bitter, and of a strong and disagreeable odour. The species is thought, however, by Professor Burnett, to be the Hedysarum of Theophrastus and Dioscorides; the odour which we find so disgusting being then considered, as its name imports, a sweet perfume. An oil extracted from the seeds of this species was formerly used by the Hindoos to scent their unguents.

yeah on Gur meadows, and walk to good riute description. to be set, from May til p»s with delice pilk, et othe The flower is on a partial stalk, Atstalk bends down, and the brown with red celing.

wet odour, which, however, is not

a purple clover. The leadets the middle, and voy get?»

also. and their edges are slightly

iple mendors clover are most valuable

...e commonly cultivated i. this and one aer of led sown w.k give as much food to horses m volded by three or four acres of land '

Chaky soils are peculiarly favour

th, and several of the trefoils are found wited vil the superstrafun of mount an It lime - owdered and thrown upon the soil, clover will sometimes arise when it ha! viously cultivated or known to exist. W

of

some years since, to the Philosophical