SAINFOIN  (Onobry- chis saliva) in

botany is a low-growing per- ennial plant with a woody rootstock, whence proceed the stems, which are covered with fine hairs and bear numerous long pinnate leaves, the segments of which are elliptic . The flowers are borne in close pyra- midal or cylindrical clusters on the end of long stalks . Each Sainfoin (Onobrychis saliva). i, Fruit, flower is about half an nat. size. inch in length with lanceolate calyx-teeth shorter than the corolla, which latter is papilionaceous, pink, with darker stripes of the same colour . The indehiscent pods or legumes are flattened from side to side, wrinkled, somewhat sickle-shaped and crested, and contain a single olive-brown seed shaped like a small bean . In Great Britain the plant is a native of the calcareous districts of the southern counties, but elsewhere it is considered as an escape from cultivation . It is native throughout the whole of Central ,Europe and Siberia; but it does not seem to have been cultivated in Great Britain till 1651, when it was introduced from France or French Flanders, its French name being retained . Alphonse de Candolle (Origin of Cultivated Plants, p . 104) considers that the cultivation of sainfoin originated in the south of France as late perhaps as the 15th century . It is grown as a forage plant, being especially well adapted for dry limestone soils . It has about the same nutritive value as lucerne, and is esteemed for milch cattle and for sheep in winter . Besides the common form, a second known as giant sainfoin is met with in cultivation, being more rapid in its growth .