PEA FAMILY 



are more unwelcome, for while they eat they do not 

 pay since the ant cannot polHnate the stigma of a flower. 

 That the pubescence of the vegetable world is to some 

 extent a reaction against crawling creatures, largely 

 ants, seems fairly clear. There are other uses for the 

 many hairs; doubtless protection against too sudden 

 changes of temperature, but the enemy from which the 

 flower must be protected is the ant. 



These small blossoms are Pea flowers, but not exactly 

 like those of the Pea or the Bean. All the parts — the 

 standard, the wings, the keel — all are there, but grown 

 together at the base by claws which form a tube that 

 secretes nectar. The deep tube of the Red Clover 

 gives its store to the bumblebee, who alone of the family 

 has a proboscis long enough to reach it; but even the 

 bumblebee sometimes falls short of its duty and bites 

 through the tube, thus gaining the sweets by another 

 and unlawful way. The Red Clover is a short-lived 

 perennial. 



And the White Clover! Everywhere; in fields, 

 in the lawns, by the roadside, springing up in garden- 

 beds, an indigenous, naturalized, ubiquitous Httle 

 creature, coming, going, creeping, waiting — omnipres- 

 ent and universal. Its tiny white flower-balls nestle 

 among the grass of three continents; it forms great 

 beds here and there; it comforts the honey bee. Its 

 running stem wanders at will, roots at the nodes, sends 

 up along its length upright stems — some bearing 

 leaves and some flowers. It is a perennial of long 

 life. Put to bed at nightfall by nature herself, it 

 conserves the warmth of its body through the night, 

 thus hinting of a northern origin. The flower-head 

 separates its florets into groups, the present and fu- 



88 



