216 



FIELD AND WOODLAND PLANTS 



long, in long racemes. The petals are equal ; and the haky pods 

 are only about a sixth of an inch long. 



The Field Mehlot (31. arvensis) is very similar, but not so tall, 

 and the flowers are less numerous. The ' keel ' is shorter than the 

 other petals ; and the pods are ribbed and blunt. The third species 

 — the White Mehlot [M. alba) — is also very similar, but it has white 

 flowers, in which the ' standard ' or upper petal is the longest. All 



three species flower from June 

 to August, but only the first 

 may be described as common. 

 The genus Trifolium, con- 

 taining the Clovers and Trefoils, 

 resembles Melilotus in its tri- 

 fohate leaves, five-toothed 

 calyx, and in the arrangement 

 of the stamens ; but it differs 

 in that the stipules adhere to 

 the leaf stalks, and the corolla 

 often persists round the ripened 

 fruit. Several species of this 

 group are common in fields and 

 pastures. 



One of these is the Clustered 

 Clover or Smooth Round- 

 headed-Trefoil {Trifolium 

 glomeratum) — a smooth plant, 

 with purple or pink flowers, 

 found principally in the dry 

 pastm-es of South and East 

 England, flowering during June 

 and July. Its spreading stems 

 are from six to twelve inches 

 long ; and the heads of flowers are small, sessile, globular, and 

 either axiUary or terminal. The calyx is ten-veined, Shorter than 

 the corolla, ^\dth five pointed teeth which bend outwards as the 

 fruit ripens. 



The Strawberry Trefoil [T. fragiferum) has long-stalked, axiUary 

 heads of rose-coloured flowers which become very compact and 

 strawberry-hke when fruiting, at which time they are half an inch 

 or more in diameter. Its creeping stem roots at the nodes ; and 

 the leaves are long-stalked, A\-ith toothed leaflets. Each head 



THE COMMON aiELTLOT. 



