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Updated: May 26, 2025
There are many varieties of this plant cultivated in flower gardens on account of the curious shapes of the seed-pods, some having a distant resemblance to snails' horns, cater-pillars, &c. under which names they are sold in the seed-shops. It grows in sandy hilly soils; the wild kind has flat pods. MEDICAGO sativa.
Several plants have been identified as the shamrock; and in "Contributions towards a Cybele Hibernica," is the following extensive note: "Trifolium repens, Dutch clover, shamrock. This is the plant still worn as shamrock on St. Patrick's Day, though Medicago lupulina is also sold in Dublin as the shamrock. Patrick's Day."
YELLOW MEDIC. Is nearly allied to Lucerne, and is equally good for fodder; it will grow on land that is very dry, and hence is likely to become a most useful plant; its culture has, however, been tried but partially. Some experiments were made with this plant by Thomas Le Blanc, Esq., in Suffolk, which are recorded by Professor Martyn. Martyn's Miller's Dict. art. Medicago. MEDICAGO polymorpha.
Among the second are these: Medicago lupulina, or nonesuch; Trifolium repens, or white clover; Lathyrus pratensis, or meadow lathyrus; Capsella bursa pastoris, or shepherd's purse; Vicia peregrina, or broad-podded vetch; Convolvulus arvensis, or small bindweed; Pterotheca nemausensis, a sort of hawkweed; and Poa pratensis, or smooth-stalked meadow-grass.
This plant should not be overlooked by the experimental farmer. It is very highly spoken of in Dr. Anderson's Essays on Agriculture, under the mistaken name of Astragalus glycophyllos, p. 489; but a truly practical account is given of it by Ellis in his Husbandry, p. 89, by the old name Lady-Finger-Grass. MEDICAGO falcata.
There is another plant, Medicago polymorpha, which may be said to assume a great variety of shapes; as the seed-vessels resemble sometimes snail-horns, at other times caterpillars with or without long hair upon them; by which means it is probable they sometimes elude the depredations of those insects.
It often originates spontaneously between the common purple lucerne or alfalfa and its wild ally with yellow flowers and procumbent stems, the Medicago falcata. This hybrid is cultivated in some parts of Germany on a large scale, as it is more productive than the ordinary lucerne. It always comes true from seed and may be seen in a wild state in parks and on lawns.
Six or seven pounds of seed will sow an acre in this mode. I have known Lucerne sown with Grass and Clover for forming meadow land; but as it does not thrive well when encumbered with other plants, I see no good derived from this practice. No plant requires, or in fact deserves, better cultivation than this, and few plants yield less if badly managed. MEDICAGO lupulina.
It is quite hardy around London, and produces its large, white, fragrant flowers in succession during May and June. The fruit is large and showy, and of a deep purplish-red colour. MEDICAGO ARBOREA. South Europe, 1596. This species grows to the height of 6 feet or 8 feet, and produces its Pea-shaped flowers from June onwards.
Thus the small Lucerne clover or medicago is often sold as "shamrock" to Irish patriots, and the watercress has been solemnly pat forward as the true shamrock simply because old writers tell us, as evidence of the barbarous state of the Irish, that they fed upon shamrocks and watercress. It was used for the manufacture of oxalic acid, which was sold as "salts of lemons" for removing iron-mould.
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