HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G SSIP. 



149 



accurate that it deserves quotation. " Rough starrie 

 headed Trefoile ; it hath a smal long white root, 

 from which arise stalkes, some foot high, round, 

 slender, hairie and reddish, having few leaves or 

 branches : the leaves stand three on a stalke, as in 

 other Trefoiles, smooth on the upper side, and 

 hairy below, the flowres are small and red, like in 

 shape to those of the common red Trefoile, but 



Gerard gives no figure, as most of his cuts are 

 excellent. Syme speaks of Trifolium stellatum as 

 rare and " perfectly naturalised on the ballast along 

 Shoreham Harbour, where it has maintained its 

 position since 1804." In a note in the ' Phytologist,' 

 Borrer describes a visit to its habitat and as finding 

 it there with other species of Trifolium. I have 

 before me some beautiful specimens which he 



Fig. 59. — Trifolium stellatum. 



lesser, and they stand each of them in a cup-reddish 

 trough below, and on the upper part cut into fine 

 long, sharpe leaves standing open as the commonly 

 figure a starre : the flowres fallen, these cuppes dilate 

 themselves and have in the middle a longish transverse 

 whitish spot. I saw this flowering in May in the 

 garden of Mr. Tradescant, who did first bring plants 

 hereof from Fermentera, a small island in the 

 Mediterranean Sea." It is to be regretted that 



collected, in late flower with the long awl-shaped 

 calyces, densely clothed with silky hairs, and the 

 larger starry heads which render it one of the most 

 lovely species of the genus. At the beginning of June 

 it is in perfection, when the stalked round heads of 

 flowers, in ovate spikes, erect, crowded together 

 display its light pinkish petals surrounded by an 

 environment of white and green. Sowerby's figure of 

 this plant represents the corolla of much too deep a 



