igS THE STORY OF PLANT LIFE 



Fodder and othur valuable economic products are 

 yielded by the Leguminosse, which is one of the most 

 important groups to Man in the plant world. 



Marsh Bird's Foot Trefoil (LoUis major). 



Lovely wild flower as the Common Bird's Foot 

 Trefoil is, the flowers of the Marsh Bird's Foot Trefoil 

 almost exceed the former in beauty. As the second 

 Latin name implies the plant is larger, being much 

 taller and more profuse. 



This plant is found in all parts of the British Isles 

 and in the Channel Islands. In Yorkshire it grows 

 at altitudes of over looo ft. 



Damp places, moist meadows, ditches, hedges, 

 bushy places, marshy places are the habitats of this 

 plant. In damp oakwoods it grows on clay or loam, 

 and on siliceous soils in siliceous grassland associa- 

 tions, where mat-grass is abundant. It also grows 

 in the limestone grassland association. 



The habit is erect or ascending, and the root- 

 stock is long, stoloniferous, branched at intervals. 

 The plant is luxuriant, hairy or smooth. The leaves 

 have inversely ovate leaflets. There are round to 

 ovate stipules. The margins of the leaves and bracts 

 are fringed with hairs. 



The flowers are eight to twelve in a head or umbel, 

 yellow, with the calyx-teeth spreading in bud, the 

 angle between the two upper spreading teeth. They 

 are acute, awl-like, with a triangular base. The claw 



