N. ORD.-LEGUMINOS/&. AT 
Tribe.—TRIFOLIEA. 
GENUS. —TRIFOLIUM,* LINN. 
SEX. SYST.—DIADELPHIA DECANDRIA. 
TRIFOLIUM. 
RED CLOVER. 
SYN.—TRIFOLIUM PRATENSE, LINN. 
COM. NAMES.—_COMMON RED CLOVER; (FR.) TREFLE; (GER.) ACKER- 
KLEE. 
A TINCTURE OF THE FLOWER-HEADS OF TRIFOLIUM PRATENSE, L. 
Description.—This largely-cultivated biennial, or short-lived perennial plant, 
attains a height of from 1 to 3 feet. The zoo is large, diffusely branched, and 
gives rise to many stems. Stems ascending, stout and slightly hairy. Sépules 
broadly lanceolate, clasping at the base and surmounted by an awl-shaped tip; 
leaves three-foliate, on long petioles; /eaflets oval or obovate, sometimes retuse 
or even emarginate, with a nearly entire edge, and marked with a whitish-green 
A-shaped spot on the central portion of the upper surface. /nxflorescence a dense, 
ovoid head of bracted, sessile flowers. Ca/yx not distinctly hairy, but having a 
bearded zone in the throat; éce¢h setiform, the lowermost longer than the others, 
which are equal. Corolla extended-tubular, about twice the length of the calyx, 
withering soon after expansion; fefads more or less coherent with one another, 
L:gumes dry, scarious, containing each a single seed; seed somewhat kidney- 
shaped. 
TRIFOLIUM.—This genus comprises leguminose herbs growing in tufts or 
diffusely spreading, and characterized as follows: Leaves palmately or sometimes 
pinnately three-foliate, rarely more ; /ea/le¢s. usually minutely toothed, rarely entire ; 
stipules scarious, coherent with the petioles. Inflorescence dense heads or spikes, 
or sometimes, when the flowers are few, umbellike. Ca/yx persistent, tubular or 
somewhat bell-shaped, five-cleft or toothed; éeeth awl shaped. Corolla five-cleft, 
withering or persistent, monopetalous at the base; vexi//um longer than the ale, 
and generally than the keel. Stamens rendered more or less diadelphous by the 
tenth filament, the tube usually free from the corolla; when united with it, it is 
through the mediumship of the claws of the alz and keel. Ovary two- to six- 
seeded; style filiform. Fruit a small, scarious legume, containing from one to 
two or sometimes three to six seeds; dehiscence none, or, if present, it takes 
* Tres, three; folium, a leaf. 
