YELLOW 



The plant grows abundantly in open woods and meadows 

 flowering in early summer. 



WILD INDIGO. 



Baptisia tinctoria. Pulse Family. 



Two or three feet high. Stems. — Smooth and slender. Leaves. — Di- 

 vided into three rounded leaflets ; somewhat pale with a whitish bloom ; 

 turning black in drying. Flozuers. — Papilionaceous ; yellow ; clustered in 

 many short, loose racemes. 



This rather bushy-looking, bright-flowered plant is constant- 

 ly encountered in midsummer in our rambles throughout the 

 somewhat dry and sandy parts of the country. It is said that it 

 is found in nearly every State in the Union, and that it has been 

 used as a homceopathic remedy for typhoid fever. Its young 

 shoots are eaten at times in place of asparagus. Both the botan- 

 ical and common names refer to its having yielded an economi- 

 cal but unsuccessful substitute for indigo. 



YELLOW CLOVER. HOP CLOVER. 



Trifolium agrarium. Pulse Family. 



Six to twelve inches high. Leaves. — Divided into three oblong leaflets. 

 Flowers. — Papilionaceous ; yellow ; small ; in close heads. 



Although this little plant is found in such abundance along 

 our New England roadsides and in many other parts of the 

 country as well, comparatively few people seem to recognize it 

 as a member of the clover group, despite a marked likeness in 

 the leaves and blossoms to others of the same family. 



The name clover probably originated in the Latin clava 

 (clubs), in reference to the fancied resemblance between the 

 three-pronged club of Hercules and the clover leaf. The clubs 

 of our playing-cards and the trefle (trefoil) of the French are 

 probably an imitation of the same leaf. 



The nonesuch, Medicago lupulina, with downy, procumbent 

 stems, and flowers which grow in short spikes, is nearly allied to 



i6o 



