Lucerne (Medicago sativa), ½ nat. size.
1, Flower, enlarged. 2, Half-ripe fruit, ¾ nat. size. 3, Fruit, enlarged.

LUCERNE, Purple Medick or Alfalfa, known botanically as Medicago sativa, a plant of the natural order Leguminosae. In England it is still commonly called “lucerne,” but in America “alfalfa,” an Arabic term (“the best fodder”), which, owing to its increasing cultivation in the western hemisphere, has come into widening usage since the introduction of the plant by the Spaniards. It is an erect perennial herb with a branched hollow stem 1 to 2 ft. high, trifoliolate leaves, short dense racemes of small yellow, blue or purple flowers, and downy pods coiled two or three times in a loose spiral. It has a characteristic long tap-root, often extending 15 ft. or more into the soil. It is a native of the eastern Mediterranean region, but was introduced into Italy in the 1st century A.D., and has become more widely naturalized in Europe; it occurs wild in hedges and fields in Britain, where it was first cultivated about 1650. It seems to have been taken from Spain to Mexico and South America in the 16th century, but the extension of its cultivation in the Western States of the American Union practically dates from the middle of the 19th century, and in Argentina its development as a staple crop is more recent. It is much cultivated as a forage crop in France and other parts of the continent of Europe, but has not come into such general use in Britain, where, however, it is frequently met with in small patches in districts where the soil is very light, with a dry subsoil. Its thick tap-roots penetrate very deeply into the soil; and, if a good cover is once obtained, the plants will yield abundant cuttings of herbage for eight or ten years, provided they are properly top-dressed and kept free from perennial weeds. The time to cut it is, as with clover and sainfoin, when it is in early flower.

In the United States alfalfa has become the staple leguminous forage crop throughout the western half of the country. Some idea of the increase in its cultivation may be obtained from the figures for Kansas, where in 1891 alfalfa was cultivated over 34,384 acres, while in 1907 the number was 743,050. The progress of irrigation has been an important factor in many districts. The plant requires a well-drained soil (deep and permeable as possible), rich in lime and reasonably free from weeds.

See, for practical directions as to cultivation, Farmers’ Bulletin 339 of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, by J. M. Westgate (Washington, December 1908).

LUCHAIRE, DENIS JEAN ACHILLE (1846-1908), French historian, was born in Paris on the 24th of October 1846. In 1879 he became a professor at Bordeaux and in 1889 professor of medieval history at the Sorbonne; in 1895 he became a member of the Académie des sciences morales et politiques, where he obtained the Jean Reynaud prize just before his death on the 14th of November 1908. The most important of Achille Luchaire’s earlier works is his Histoire des institutions monarchiques de la France sous les premiers Capétiens (1883 and again 1891); he also wrote a Manuel des institutions françaises: période des Capétiens directs (1892); Louis VI. le Gros, annales de sa vie et de son règne (1890); and Étude sur les actes de Louis VII. (1885). His later writings deal mainly with the history of the papacy, and took the form of an elaborate work on Pope Innocent III. This is divided into six parts: (1.) Rome et Italie (1904); (ii.) La Croisade des Albigeois (1905); (iii.) La Papauté et l’empire (1905); (iv.) La Question d’Orient (1906); (v.) Les Royautés vassales du Saint-Siège (1908); and (vi.) Le Concile de Latran et la réforme de l’Église (1908). He wrote two of the earlier volumes of E. Lavisse’s Histoire de France.

LUCHU ARCHIPELAGO (called also Riukiu, Loo-choo and Liukiu), a long chain of islands belonging to Japan, stretching from a point 80 m. S. of Kiushiu to a point 73 m. from the N.E. coast of Formosa, and lying between 24° and 30° N. and 123° and 130° E. Japanese cartographers reckon the Luchu islands as 55, having a total coast-line of 768 m., an area of 935 sq. m., and a population of about 455,000. They divide them into three main groups, of which the northern is called Oshima-shoto; the central, Okinawa-gunto; and the southern, Sakishima-retto. The terms shoto, gunto and retto signify “archipelago,” “cluster of islands” and “string of islands” respectively. The last-named group is subdivided into Miyako-gunto and Yayeyama-gunto. The principal islands of these various groups are:—

Oshima-shoto—
Amami-Oshima 34 m. long and 17  m. broad
Tokuno-shima 16 ” 8½ ”
Okinawa-gunto—
Okinawa-shima (Great Luchu) 63½ m. long and 14½ m. broad
Kume-shima  9¾ ” 7½ ”
Okinoerabu-shima  9½ ” 5  ”
Ihiya-shima  5 ” 2½ ”
Miyako-gunto—
Miyako-shima 12¼ m. long and 12 m. broad
Erabu-shima  4¾ ” 3½ ”
Yayeyama-gunto—
Ishigaki-shima 24½ m. long and 14½ m. broad
Iriomoto-shima 14½ ” 14  ”
Yonakuni-shima  71⁄3 “ 3½ “