Fenugreek

Fenugreek (Trigonella Foenum-graecum), an erect annual leguminous plant about 2 feet high, probably a native of Asia, but cultivated for hay by the ancient Greeks and Romans, and still in Egypt and India. Its leaves consist of three leaflets, the terminal one stalked; the flowers are in axillary umbellate clusters, and the sickle-shaped pods contain ten to twenty seeds, from which 6 per cent. of a bitter oil can be obtained. The seeds are used in curry-powder, in cattle foods, and to improve the flavour of inferior hay. The whole plant, and especially the seed, contains the arematic principle coumarin (C₉H₆O₂), which also occurs in the Tonquin Bean, in sweet wood-ruff, in melilot, and in the sweet-scented vernal grass Anthoxanthum odoratum, giving the perfume known as "new-mown hay."