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plant were for the first time sent from China to Russia in 184o, and that he himself has been active for six years in propagating it in Russia, Livonia, Esthonia, and Finland. This is not to be doubted, but the point I venture to question is that the plant should not have been known in Russia prior to 184o. Not only do we find in the Russian language the words medunka (from Greek médiké) and the European l'utserna (lucerne) for the designation of Medicago sativa, but also krasni (" red ") burkun, lenuxa, lugovoi v'azel ("Coronilla of the meadows"); the word burkun, burundzik, referring to Medicago falcata (called also yûmorki), burun'ik to M. lupulina. It is hard to realize that all these terms should have sprung up since 184o, and that the Russians should not have received information about this useful plant from European, Iranian, or Turkish peoples. A. DE CANDOLLE1 observes, "In the south of Russia, a locality mentioned by some authors, it is perhaps the result of cultivation as well as in the south of Europe." Judging from the report of N. E. HANSEN,2 it appears that three species of Medicago (M. falcata, M. platycarpa, and M. ruthenica) are indigenous to Siberia.
The efforts of our Department of Agriculture to promote and to improve the cultivation of alfalfa in this country are well known; for this purpose also seeds from China have been introduced. Argentine chiefly owes to alfalfa a great amount of its cattle-breeding.'
1 Origin of Cultivated Plants, p. 103.
9 The Wild Alfalfas and Clovers of Siberia, pp. I I-15 (Bureau of Plant Industry, Bull. No. 150, Washington, 1909).
8 Cf. I. B. LORENZETTI, La Alfafa en la Argentina (Buenos Aires, 1913, 360 p.)•
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