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Melilotus Speciosus
''Melilotus'', known as melilot, sweet clover, and kumoniga (from the Cumans),Bulgarian Folk Customs, Mercia MacDermott, pg 27 is a genus in the family Fabaceae (the same family that also includes the ''Trifolium'' clovers). Members are known as common grassland plants and as weeds of cultivated ground. Originally from Europe and Asia, it is now found worldwide. This legume is commonly named for its sweet smell, which is due to the presence of coumarin in its tissues. Coumarin, though responsible for the sweet smell of hay and newly mowed grass, has a bitter taste, and, as such, possibly acts as a means for the plant to discourage consumption by animals. Fungi (including ''Penicillium, Aspergillus, Fusarium'', and ''Mucor'') can convert coumarin into dicoumarol, a toxic anticoagulant. Consequently, dicoumarol may be found in decaying sweet-clover, and was the cause of the so-called sweet-clover disease, recognized in cattle in the 1920s. A few varieties of sweet clover have bee ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philip Miller
Philip Miller FRS (1691 – 18 December 1771) was an English botanist and gardener of Scottish descent. Miller was chief gardener at the Chelsea Physic Garden for nearly 50 years from 1722, and wrote the highly popular ''The Gardeners Dictionary''. Life Born in Deptford or Greenwich, Miller was chief gardener at the Chelsea Physic Garden from 1722 until he was pressured to retire shortly before his death. According to the botanist Peter Collinson, who visited the physic garden in July 1764 and recorded his observation in his commonplace books, Miller "has raised the reputation of the Chelsea Garden so much that it excels all the gardens of Europe for its amazing variety of plants of all orders and classes and from all climates..." He wrote ''The Gardener's and Florists Dictionary or a Complete System of Horticulture'' (1724) and ''The Gardener's Dictionary containing the Methods of Cultivating and Improving the Kitchen Fruit and Flower Garden'', which first appeared in 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
