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MEDICAGO sativa.
Purple Medick, or Lucerne.
DIADELPHIA Decandria.
Gen. Char. Pod compressed, spiral, forcing back
the keel of the corolla from the standard.
Spec. Char. Flower-stalks racemose. Pods spirally
twisted. Stem erect, smooth.
Syn. Medicago sativa. Linn. Sp. PL 1096. Sm. FI.
Brit. 795. Huds. 330. With. 658. Hull. 165.
Abbot. 164. Mart. Rust. t. 48.
Trifolium Burgundiacum. Ger. em. 1189.
T h e Cultivated Lucerne is well known as a fodder for cattle,
though rather of recent introduction. It is said to have been
brought from the more eastern countries into Greece, and has
for ages been in general cultivation in the south of Europe.
A complete history of the subject is given in Professor Martyn’s
Flora Rusticav
This plant seems to have but little right to a place in. our
Flora, being only a naturalized species, and seldom lasting
long in a place. The Rev. Mr. Leâthes sent it from Cringle-
ford near Norwich, where he observed it abundantly in hedges,
as wild as it ever occurs with us, flowering in July and
August.
Root perennial, woody, preferring a calcareous dry soil.
Stems nearly erect, about 2 feet high, branched, leafy,
roundish, smooth. Leaves alternate, stalked, ternate, oblong
inclining to wedge-shaped, acute, serrated in the fore part,
smooth above, hairy beneath. Stipulée acute, sometimes
toothed. Clusters axillary, on stalks, erect, many-flowered,
with a bristle-like bractea at the base of each partial stalk.
Corolla purple, streaked with white and green. Pod spiral,
making 2 or 3 turns, rarely more, and containing several
seeds. The more spiral pod chiefly distinguishes the plant
from M.falcata, t. 1016, which after all may be the true wild
state of M. sativa. Neither culture, however, on the one
hand, nor neglect on the other, has hitherto brought them
together, so far as we have been able to inquire. ■aSo'j-PuèlîsJi.cL 7>y J a L Sm rerlry £ a iu ù r,