240 FLOWERS OF FIELD, HILL, AND SWAMP 



23. Alfalfa 



M. satlva is cultivated for fodder. The flowers are pur- 

 ple and the pods spirally twisted. 



24. Rabbit-foot or Stone Clover 



Trifolium arvense bears flowers in compact heads. The 

 color, at first purplish, becomes a soft gray, and the heads are 

 silky and downy. Stipules are joined to thie leaf-stalk. It is 

 a troublesome weed in new lawns, having persistent, strong 

 roots. In fields its masses of bloom vary with a pleasing gray 

 tint the greens and browns of grasses. 5 to 10 inches high. 



25. Yellow or Hop Clover 



T. agrarium is not indigenous. Its yellow corolla be- 

 comes dry and brown with old age. The stipules are long 

 and narrow, joined to the leaf-stalk for half its length. It 

 grows in light soil by roadsides and in dry fields; about 10 

 inches high. 



26 



A smaller species of yellow-blossomed clover is T. prociim- 

 bens, with downy stems 5 or 6 inches high. 



27. Vetch. Tare 



Vic'ia sat'iva. — Family, Pulse. Color, light purple. Leaves, 

 of 5 to 7 pairs, narrow, tipped with a tendril. 



Corolla, papilionaceous. Flowers, large, i or 2 in the leaf- 

 axils, with short or no peduncles. 



This is the common tare, that springs up in cultivated fields, 

 from New England to New Jersey and southward. 



V. tetraspertna has whitish flowers on long stems. 



V. hirsuta has blue flowers, growing several on the stem. 



All naturalized from Europe. 



