Miscellaneous matters
■ From AG 18 April 1885
The Gruyère cheese plant
Some think that Melilotus officinalis is a British plant, but of that there is some doubt, although in parts of Norfolk and Cambridgeshire it is plentiful in the hay fields. It grows 2-3ft (60-90cm) high and has triple leaves, which are narrow and serrated. The pale-yellow flowers appear from June-August, and are succeeded by seed vessels that are large and long in proportion to the flowers.
The whole plant is powerfully aromatic, and when it occurs in the hay the fragrance of the field is peculiar, and reminds one of the remarkably rich odour of mountain hay on Dartmoor, Snowdon and other elevated regions, the high valleys of the Alps included.
The beekeeper
