236 



TRIFOLIUM PRATENSE var. PARVIFLORUM. 

 By I. H. BuRKiLL, M.A., F.L.S.- 



There are three abnormal states of the common red clover in 

 which the corolla is found unduly shortened. One of these is due 

 to an insect larva which feeds within the bud, stunts its growth, 

 causes it to remain closed and the basal parts to be fleshy ; the 

 second occurs wheu the petals are in part sepaloid ; the third is a 

 condition in which the corolla-tube is crumpled and the ovary 

 slightly foliaceous ; moreover it generally has peduncles to the 

 heads and short pedicels to the llo\vers. This last is Trifoliiim. 

 pratense var. parvijiornui, and has the following synonymy : — 



T. pratense var. parcijioram Babingt. Manual Brit. Bot. ed. 1 

 (1843), p. 72 ; Lange in Oeder's Flora Danica, t. 2782. 



T. brachystylos Knaf in Lotos, 1854, p. 237. 



r. pratense var. pedicellatiun Knaf ex Celakovsky, Prod. d. Flora 

 von Boehmen, iii. (1875) p. 669. 



r. pratense forma 7'. brackyanthemiun /? heterophi/lliiin Rouy in 

 Rouy et Foucaud, Floie de France, v. (1899) p. 120 (pub- 

 lished as Ann. Soc. Sc. Nat. Charente-infer.). 



Babington's type-specimens from Elgin, as well as others from 

 Plymouth and Walton-on-Naze, and a type of Lange's figure have 

 been accessible to me in the Herbarium at Cambridge ; a type of 

 Knaf's name, collected by Auerswald in Bohemia, f has been seen 

 in the Botanical Department of the British Museum of Natural 

 History, South Kensington ; at the Royal Gardens, Kew, are speci- 

 mens collected at Fairmile in Surrey, at St. Leonards, at Tonbridge 

 Wells, and at Elgin, from the herbaria of Borrer and H. C. Watson, 

 and from near Bordeaux, collected by C. des Mouhns ; and I have 

 myself collected it at Hunstanton in Norfolk, Grattou Park in Surrey. 

 Waltham St. Lawrence in Berkshire, and (in company with Mr, 

 G. Nicholson) near Heiligeublut in Carinthia^on each occasion a 

 single root. All these specimens agree very closely. 



The first definition of the variety parvljionim runs: "heads 

 more or less stalked : calyx-teeth as long as, or longer than, the 

 corolla," and is correct as far as it goes. Celakovsky 's description 

 is '' Ahren grosstentheils gestielt ; Bliitheu langer oder kiirzer 

 gestielt ; Deckblatter theilweise ausgebildet ; Grififel kiirzer als die 



* [Reprinted from the Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, 

 vol. xi. part I. pp. 29-31. Read 26 November, 1900.] 



t [Mr. BurkiU has omitted to notice that the type was collected, not by 

 Auerswald (from whose herbarium it came) but by Knaf himself, at Tomatan, 

 in June, 1856. The attached label is signed by Knaf, who had named the plant 

 T. hr achy stylos, and then added the following note : " Ditfert a T.pratensi tlori- 

 bus plus minus longi pedicellatis, pedicellis interdum ramosis, stylis brevioribus, 

 tubum corollse non asiiuantibus, capitulis aliis bractea suffultis, aliis saape desti- 

 tutis; foliolis fol. rad. apice emarginatis, etc. 'Lotos' etc. Nihilominus tamen 

 varietatem memorabilem T. pratensis esse puto, cui nomen propono : var. pedi- 

 cellatiun.'" We gathered the plant many years ago at the Balham end of 

 Wandsworth Common, where it occurred in some quantity. —Ed. Journ. Bot.] 



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