454 Mr. Bicheno on the 



differing from the established belief; yet, I think I am in a 

 situation to prove, by abundant testimony, that the Trifolium 

 repens is not that shamrock of the Irish nation, nor any other 

 clover, but that the wood-sorrel, the Oxalis acetosella, is the 

 plant originally intended. As it is a point of some curiosity, I 

 shall venture to lay the evidence before the Linnean Society. 

 It would seem a condition, at least suitable, if not necessary, 

 to a national emblem, that it should be something familiar to 

 the people, and familiar, too, at the season when the national 

 feast is celebrated. Thus, the Welsh have given the leek to 

 St. David, being a favourite oleraceous herb, and almost the 

 only green thing which is to be found in Wales at the season 

 of his feast ; the Scotch, on the other hand, whose feast of 

 St. Andrew is in the autumn, have adopted the thistle (pro- 

 bably the Carduus lanceolatus) , a plant most abundant at that 

 period of the year. Our own patron, St. George, is a saint 

 who has fallen so much to the leeward with us, that I do not 

 derive any assistance from him ; and I am not aware that his 

 warlike temperament was ever represented by a plant or 

 flower. 



If the national emblem may be expected to be seasonable 

 and familiar, the Trifolium repens is not a happy choice ; for 

 its leaves are scarcely expanded in the middle of March, and 

 it produces its flowers in the summer, its great merit in agri- 

 culture being to produce herbage during the droughts of sum- 

 mer and the autumnal months. Hence even in London, about 

 which the earliest cultivation is found, we see in the hats of 

 the meri Hiberni very starved specimens of the white, or 

 Dutch clover, and sometimes the Medicago lupulina, and even 

 chickweed and other plants substituted for it. But there is a 

 still greater difficulty with regard to its being of common 

 occurrence. None of the trefoils are naturally abundant in 

 Ireland, but have become so by cultivation. The Medicago 

 is pretty extensively sown ; and the Trifolium repens } though 

 now neglected by the farmer, has a wonderful propensity to 

 diffuse itself in improved countries, and is by no means of fre- 

 quent occurrence in wild uncultivated places. It is one of 

 those plants which the Americans describe as coming in with 

 cultivation. It is not a favourite, or rather there is a prejudice 



