Medicago.

Medicago denticulata Willd. Leguminosae. Bur Clover. Shanghai Trefoil.

North temperate region of the Old World. A fine, broad-leaved variety of this plant was found by Fortune to be much used by the Chinese as a winter vegetable.

Medicago lupulina Linn. Black Medick. Nonesuch.

North temperate region of the Old World; naturalized in places in America. In southern California, its seeds are much relished by the Indians.

Medicago platycarpa Trautv.

Siberia. The plant furnishes a food.

Medicago sativa Linn. Alfalfa. Lucerne.

Europe and the Orient. The leaves are eaten by the Chinese as a vegetable.

Medicago scutellata Mill. Snails.

Mediterranean region. This plant is not edible but, like the caterpillar-plant, is grown on account of the singular shape of its seed-vessels. It was in Belgian and German gardens preceding 1616 and in American gardens in 1863 or before.

Sturtevant's Edible Plants of the World, 1919, was edited by U. P. Hedrick.