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Rh

Though the rambler will find this handsome plant growing apparently wild in the hedgerow and on the borders of fields, he must not too hastily conclude it is a native. The species has been largely grown here as a green fodder plant, for which it is highly esteemed, and it has escaped from the fields and reproduced itself without man's aid. A glance at its flowers will show it is a leguminous plant. Its stems are hollow, branched; its leaves trifoliate, with long-pointed stipules at the base of the leaf-stalk. From the axils of the leaves arise long stalks, whose free ends are crowded with the deep purple (sometimes yellow) flowers. A peculiarity of this genus consists in the seed pod being more or less spirally twisted. In the present species it is downy and has two or three coils. It flowers from May to July. It has been thought to be a cultivated variety of the next species, M. falcata. The name Medicago is from the old Greek medike so-called because it was introduced into Greece by the Medes. The following species also occur in this country:&mdash;