MELILOT, the Common, Melilot-trefoil, King's-claver, or Harts-clover, Trifolium Melilotus officinalis, L. an indigenous plant, growing on a stiff soil; on ditch banks; in thickets, hedges; corn-fields and meadows; flowering in the months of June and July.—This plant is eaten by sheep, goats, cows, hogs, and particularly by horses, which devour it with great avidity. Its fragrance increases when dry; and if its flowers be distilled, they yield a water, which, though possessing little odour in itself, imparts a very grateful flavour to other substances.
Bechstein remarks, that the common melilot is frequently covered with mildew, which renders it extremely pernicious to cattle.—Thus, in Thuringia, a distemper prevailed lately among sheep, great numbers of which died of a putrid liver; because this and other species of clover were through the whole summer affected with the mildew: nay, even the hares were then uniformly in a state of putrefaction.