Cultivated-Plant Study 657 



The flowers are beloved by bees and many other insects, which are 

 attracted to them by their fragrance as well as by the white radiance of 

 their blossoms. The ripened pod is well encased in the calyx at its 

 base. The foliage of the sweet clover is fragrant, especially so when 

 drying; it has been used for fodder. The sweet clovers came to us from 

 Europe and are, in a measure, compensation for some of the other 

 emigrant weeds which we wish had remained at home. 



LESSON CLXVII 



SWEET CLOVER 



Leading thought This beneficent plant grows in soil too poor for other 

 plants to thrive in. It brings nitrogen and air into the soil, and thus 

 makes it fertile so that other plants soon find in its vicnity nourishment 

 for growth . 



Method Plants of the sweet clover with their roots may be brought to 

 the schoolroom for study. The children should observe sweet clover in 

 the field ; its method of inflorescence, and the insects which visit it, should 

 be noted. 



Observations i . What first makes you aware that you are near sweet 

 clover? On what kinds of soil, and in what localities, does sweet clover 

 abound ? 



2. Do you know how sweet clover growing in poor soils and waste 

 places acts as a pioneer for other plants? 



3. Dig up a sweet clover plant, and see how far its stems go into the 

 soil? 



4. How high does the plant grow? What is the color of its foliage? 



5. Compare one of the leaves with the leaf of a red clover, and de- 

 scribe the likeness and the difference. Note especially the edges of the 

 upper and the lower leaves, and also the stipules. 



6. Describe the way the sweet clover blossoms. Do the lower or 

 upper flowers open first ? How does the flower stem look before it begins 

 to blossom ? What happens to it after the blossoming begins ? How long 

 will it continue to blossom ? 



7. Take a blossom and compare it with that of a sweet pea. Can you 

 see the banner? The wings? The keel? Can you see if the stamens are 

 united into two sets? Can you see the pistil? Note the shape of the 

 calyx . 



8. How many flowers are in blossom at a time? Does it make a mass 

 of white to attract insects? In what other way does it attract insects? 

 What insects do you find visiting it ? 



9. How do the ripened pods look? 



"The blooming wilds His gardens are; some cheering 

 Earth's ugliest waste has felt that flowers bequeath, 

 And all the winds o'er summer hills*careering 

 Sound softer for the sweetness that they breathe." 



THERON BROWN. 



