DEPARTMENT REPORTS. ]29 



The eight heads of the same age left uncovered yielded from 25 to 35 seeds 

 each, a total of 236 seeds. 



These experiments, with those made by Darwin and others, make it look as 

 though bees and bumble bees helped to fertilize the flowers of white and red 

 clover, and cause the plants to set seeds more freely. 



Very small insects could not be excluded in the experiments. These may 

 have been present in some cases — were seen in a few cases on the flowers. If 

 bumble bees do more good than harm, as we have very good reason to believe, 

 we should encourage them and not " break them up." Bumble bees prefer to 

 raise their colonies in old nest§ of meadow mice. It has been suggested that 

 we should not keep many cats, nor allow hawks, and foxes, and dogs to catch 

 these mice, which make nests so necessary for the bumble bees, which help 

 fertilize our red clover. "> 



The following, on "Variation of Red Clover," is an abstract of a paper, with 

 with some additions, read at the last meeting of the Society for the Promotion 

 of Agricultural fScience, held in Montreal: 



For the past two years I have bee>i studying hundreds of plants of red 

 clover at all seasons and stages of growth. I have marked and saved seeds of 

 (gome twenty plants, which have shown the most distinct and widely different 

 peculiarities. 



Of course, we all know that soil and the distance the plants grow from each 

 other have very much to do with the growth of the plants, but these different 

 conditions alone cannot be considered as the cause of the present difference 

 in the phmts. 



1. Individual plants show considerable difference in the earliness of 

 growtii in spring and after cutting. This is especially true of the stems, 

 which finally bear the heads of flowers. Some flowers may be seen in central 

 Michigan by the first of June, on ordinary seasons, while other plants are 

 nearly, or quite four weeks later. 



2. Some plants stool out and send up many stalks; others, few. 



3. On hot, dry days some plants wilt, while others show no signs of 

 wilting. 



4. There is a great difference in the heights of plants, even where the soil 

 appears to be uniform. 



5. Some grow erect, even where there is nothing to crowd them ; others 

 spread out at once, making a very small angle with the ground. 



6. Some stems are large, others slender. 



7. Some plants are densely pubescent, others are nearly siiooTH, and 

 between these are all gradations. In this respect the same plant varies some- 

 what with the season. 



8. The stems of some are pure light green, or dark green, or tinged with 

 purple, or even dark purple throughout. 



9. The stems vary much in the length of internodes and length and 

 number of branches. 



10. On some plants the leaves are dark green, smooth, and thick, with 

 no trace of light-colored spots. On others, the leaves are light-colored, with 

 or witliout spots, of variable size and shape. Some leaves are thin and flabby. 



11. Some leaflets are very wide in proportion to the length, others 

 very narrow, and between these are all gradations. 



12. The stipules vary in nhape and color and in the position taken in 

 regard to the main axis. Some clasp the main axis even with the tips. In 



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