LEGUMINOSEAE (PULSE FAMILY) 



83 



leaflets 7 to 11, oblanceolate; flowers in a long raceme, purplish-blue; 

 pods broad, very hairy with 5 or 6 seeds. Sandy soil. May, June. 



Tri folium; a, T. pratense. Red clover; b, T. 

 repens, White clover. 



TRIFOLIUM 



Tufted shrubs with mostly palmately, 3-foliolate leaves. Flow- 

 ers in heads or spikes. Keel short and obtuse and the loth 

 stamen more or less sep- 

 arate from the others. 

 Pods small, often included 

 in calyx. 



T. pratense, RED CLOVER. 



Stems ascending , some- 

 what hairy; leaflets oval or 

 obovate, often notched at 

 end and marked on upper 

 side by pale spots; stipules 

 broad, bristly-pointed ; flow- 

 ers sessile in dense ovoid 

 heads; corolla magenta to 

 whitish. Fields and mead- 

 ows. 



T. repens, WHITE CLOVER. Stem smooth, slender, spreading and 

 creeping; leaves inversely heart-shaped; stipules scale-like, narrow; 

 petioles and peduncles very long; flowers stalked in short heads; calyx 

 much shorter than the white corolla. Fields and 

 roadsides. 



T. hybridum, ALSIKE CLOVER. Like the last, but 

 stems erect or ascending; leaflets ovate, rounded at 

 apex; flowers rose-tinted. 



MELILOTUS 



Herbs, fragrant in drying, with pinnately 3- 

 foliolate leaves. Flowers, as in trifolium, but in 

 spike-like racemes. Pod ovoid, wrinkled and 

 longer than the calyx. 



M. officinalis, YELLOW MELILOT. Upright, usually 



tall; leaflets obtuse, closely serrate; petals yellow, 

 Mehlotus offici- *j 



nalis, Yellow * nearly equal length; pod prominently cross- 

 melilot. ribbed. Waste ground. 



