200 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS 



2-3 EDWARD VII., A. 19D3 



may probably be an aberrant form of Trifolium medium, L., or a hybrid of that species 

 with some other clover. Trifolium medium, as described in European works, does not 

 correspond with any clover known to such botanists as I have been able to consult, or 

 that I myself have ever seen growing in Canada. 



Mammoth Red Clover, which is the same as Cow Grass of English seedmen, is 

 stated in most American works to be T. mediiim, L., but it lacks entirely the stolo- 

 niferous or true-perennial habit of Simpson's perennial clover. In Sutton's ' Farmers' 

 Year Book,' Cow Grass is stated to be a hybrid between T. medium, L., and the Common 

 Red Clover (T. pratense, L.), but Simpson's True-perennial Clover does not agree either 

 with the description of Cow Grass, nor do plants grown from seeds received from Sutton 

 & Sons under that name, in any way resemble the Prince Edward Island plant. T. 

 medium is called Zigzag Clover, from the angulated growth of the stems, but I find no 

 approach to this in our Canadian plant. Simpson's True-perennial Clover is a free- 

 growing, fi-equently branching, narx^ow-leaved, rather smooth perennial clover, much 

 resembling thefigureof T. mediiim, givenin Sowerby's 'English Botany,'but with,asarule, 

 two large cylindrical-ovate heads of flowers, on pedicels from one to two inches in length, 

 terminating each branch of the stem. The plants have no true caudex but throw out 

 freely in all directions through the soil vigorous stolons, by which the plants spread 

 rapidly. The seeds are heart-shaped, pale yellow in colour, smaller than those of both 

 Common Red and Mammoth Clovers. From the fact that so little seed is produced, the 

 hybrid nature of this clover is suggested, and it is probable that Trifolium mediu^n may have 

 been a parent. If Mammoth Red really be a hybrid, it is possible that this form may 

 have originated from seed sown as that variety, and, as all hybrids are for a time un- 

 stable and subject to variation in diiferent directions, the plant under discussion may be 

 a hybrid which has run back towards T. medium, much more than is usually the case. 



Mammoth Red Clover is now extensively grown and is fairly constant in its char- 

 acters. It may be described as merely a large free-growing variety of the Common Red 

 Clover with larger and handsomer seeds, maturing about a week later in summer, but 

 with exactly the same kind of rootstocks ; in fact, it bears about the same relation to 

 Common Red Clover, that Tall Fescue among the true grasses does to the slightly 

 smaller Meadow Fescue. Common Red Clover is normally a biennial, with a tap-shaped 

 rootstock. The plants, as a rule, die after ripening seeds the second year, although, if 

 cut twice so as to prevent seed ripening, some plants will grow the third year. Mam- 

 moth Red Clover is slightly more persistent, but with a rootstock of the same nature ; 

 and I have never been able to find a plant which produced stolons or running rootstocks. 



The Origin. 



All that is known of the origin of this clover is given in the following extract from 

 a letter of Mr. Walter Simpson, the discoverer : — 



Bay View, P.E.I., Nov. 20, 1902. — ' It was about ten years ago that I found this 

 clover growing along the edge of a spruce bush on my farm here in Bay View. It 

 was just outside the cultivated fields and under the boughs of the spruce at the south 

 side of the bush, about four chains from my buildings. My attention was attracted to 

 it in passing, by the peculiar shape of the leaves. The clover when first found was in 

 a thick mat extending about two rods in length and a yard in width. It looked very 

 pretty growing, on account of its pointed leaves and rich dark green colour. I thought 

 at first sight that it was something new and showed it to several neighbours, but they 

 failed to see its diflterence from other clovers. It was first pronounced to be Trifolium 

 medium, by the expert botanists of the Prince Edward Island Natural Histroy Society, 

 and v>^as catalogued as such in their lists of new plants found on the island. 



' The original patch still exists and has spread considerably from where first found 

 and it has crept out into the cultivated field. I had none of it ripen this year, as the 

 sheep had access to it all summer and cropped it close. In years that it did ripen, I 

 could not find a single seed in the heads, though, of course, I did not examine it very 

 closely. I have never given it any cultiv^ation.' — Walter Simpson, 



