188 LEGUMINOS^ 



vie with the bean-field or the hop-garden in sweetness of odour. The plant 

 flowers all the summer, and in June, when skies are bright, and its fragrance 

 is most powerful, it is the resort of bees and butterflies innumerable. Pliny 

 remarked how fond the bees were of this flower ; and the modern bee-keeper 

 may think that it is fortunate for him when the farmer in his neighbour- 

 hood sows his land with Clover. Everyone who in childhood has run about 

 the meadows gathering flowers can tell how sweet a honey lurks within its 

 petals ; and we wonder not that our fathers called them honeysuckles ; or, 

 as in Shakspere's time, honey-stalks : — 



"Give honey-stalks to sheep." 



But though this clover is rich in honey, it is so carefully stored away 

 that only the long-tongued humble-bees can reach it. Charles Darwin 

 showed that a crop of Red Clover seeds could not be obtained in this 

 country without the aid of the humble bees in fertilization ; on the other 

 hand, White Clover is fertilized almost entirely by hive bees. 



In this country Clover is sown for the food of cattle, but in some other 

 lands it is cultivated for other uses. Mr. Fortune remarks in his " Wander- 

 ings in China," that after the last crop of rice has been gathered in, the 

 ground is immediately ploughed up, and prepared to receive certain hardy 

 green crops, such as Clover, the oil plant, and other varieties of the cabbage 

 tribe. "The Trefoil or Clover," says this writer, " is sown in ridges, to keep 

 it above the level of the water, which often covers the valley during the 

 winter months. When I first went to Chusan, and saw this plant cultivated 

 so extensively in the fields, I was at a loss to know the use to which it was 

 applied, for the Chinese have few cattle to feed, and these are easily supplied 

 from the roadsides and uncultivated parts of the hills. On inquiry, I found 

 that this crop was cultivated almost exclusively for manure. The large 

 fresh Trefoil leaves are also picked and used as a vegetable by the natives." 



The Clover field presents a singular appearance in the early morning, 

 before the sun is fully risen, as well as at evening twilight. The leaves are 

 all folded together, showing the pale green tint of their under surfaces, often 

 well besprinkled with the pearls of dew. In wet weather the same appear- 

 ance is presented by the plants. Pliny told how the Clover leaves were 

 influenced by storms, and Willsford, in his "Nature's Secrets," says, "Trefoile 

 or Claver grasse, against strong or tempestuous weather will seem rough, 

 and the leaves of it stand and rise up as if it were afraid of an assault." 

 The same author quaintly remarks, that the leaves of trees and plants in 

 general will shake and tremble against a tempest more than ordinary ; and 

 that all tender buds, blossoms, and delicate flowers, against the incursion 

 of a storm, "doe contract and withdraw themselves within their husks and 

 leaves, Avhereby each may preserve itself from the injury of the weather ;" 

 and he adds, that "leaves in the wind, or down floating on the water, are 

 signs of a tempest more than ordinarie." 



This Clover is pretty general throughout Europe, as are most of the 

 British Trefoils. It has been remarked, that in the distribution of the 

 leguminous plants in the south of Europe, the Brooms have their maximum 

 in Spain ; that the Vetches increase in Greece ; and that the various Trefoils 



