THE CLOVER FAMILY 



represents the most specialised and most highly- 

 evolved of all British pea-flower plants. Its heads 

 of only two or three flowers might, without reflec- 

 tion, be looked upon as a sign of degeneration, but 

 a reduction in the number of fruits or seed- 

 producing parts, is often a sign of advancement. 

 Plum and cherry trees, for example, produce only 

 one seed as the product of each flower and fruit, 

 but other members of their family, as the raspberry, 

 blackberry, strawberry, etc., develop numerous 

 seeds in each '^ fruit." The plum and cherry type 

 of fruit is particularly attractive to man and the 

 larger animals, and this insures a greater chance 

 that the hard seed of the fruit will be distributed 

 than is the case with the numerous smaller seeds 

 that largely depend upon birds for their distribu- 

 tion. Thus one large fruit with a pretty sure 

 prospect of dispersal is of more value than a 

 number of smaller ones, many of which may be 

 overlooked by the natural distributing agents. 



So it is with the subterranean clover. It has 

 discovered that, with two or three pods of seeds, 

 and a well-organised scheme for their protection 

 and sowing, it is able to hold its own much better 

 than if it produced a bold head of little pods full 

 of rich seeds that would make a tempting mouthful 

 to the first hungry sheep or goat that happened to 

 see it. 



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