92 THE STORY OF PLANT LIFE 
Many meadows are covered with Red Clover in 
bloom from May onward up till September. By the 
wayside, as well as in the meadow, it grows side by 
side with the Dutch Clover. Where one is extremely 
common the other may be scarce. The White Clover 
is a more vigorous creeping plant, and may oust the 
Red Clover in some places, as it is an erect plant 
which does not spread by creeping stems. 
Banks where the soil is sandy are especially 
favoured by this elegant trefoil, and railway banks are 
often covered with it. 
The stems are rigid, erect, downy, hollow; the 
leaves are trifoliate, like most trefoils; the leaflets 
ovate, entire; the stipules blunt, with a subulate 
awn, appressed, with a central white spot. 
The spikes of bloom are purple or red or pink, 
ovate, dense, sessile. The calyx is hirsute with 
subulate teeth, with ten veins, not so long as the 
corolla by more than a half. The seeds are con- 
tained in a pod, the top of which falls off when ripe. 
As the tube is long, the honey at its base is only 
reached by long-tongued insects, and for this reason 
the Dutch Clover is the source of honey for the 
honey-bee. The nine anterior stamens form a tube 
with the claw of the petals. The insect’s proboscis 
is inserted below the vexillum ; when passing from 
the middle line posteriorly it is arrested by the 
posterior stamens. The broad base of the vexillum 
is continuous with the upper part of the tube and 
partly inferior by expansion of the free limb and base 
