2. The cœrulea, or Purple Melic-grass, growing on boggy barren meadows and pastures, and flowering in the months of July and August. This valuable plant is eagerly eaten by horses, sheep, and goats: it also affords an excellent substitute for hair, in the manufacture of brooms, which furnish considerable employment for the country people, in the western counties of England.
3. The ciliata, or Fringed Melic-grass:
4. The altissima, or Lofty Melic-grass:—both are exotic, but valuable plants; as the former thrives on barren stony hills, where its stalk grows from two to three feet high, and is an excellent pasture-grass; while the latter is of a bushy nature, delights in almost every soil, and is much relished by cattle. Both species, therefore, deserve to be diligently cultivated in the northern parts of Britain, where large trads of mountainous land produce scarcely any grass for sheep.
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.
MELON, the Common, or Musk-Melon, Cucumis melo, L. an exotic plant growing wild in Asia, whence it has been introduced into the south of Europe, and is also cultivated in Britain, on account of its delicious fruit.—It is propagated from seed, which should be from three to six years old, and be sown at two different periods, in order to obtain a succession of crops. For those of the flrst season, the seeds may be set about the middle of February, on a cucumber-bed, at a distance of two inches from each other, and covered with a little earth. When a fortnight old, they should be transplanted, and in the course of three additional weeks, finally removed to the bed on which they are intended to remain, and which ought to be in a warm situation, so as to be defended from cold and violent winds.
The second crop should be sown about the middle of March, and treated in a similar manner. But the hot-bed, formed with the view of rearing these tender exotics, ought to evaporate two or three days before it be ready for the reception of the plants, which should be carefully removed, without injuring their fibres. After they are placed on the tops of the hills raised of garden mould above the dung, it will be necessary to water them once or twice, till they have
