98 FODDER AND PASTURE PLANTS. 
the heads are wet with dew, to handle the crop with the utmost care 
and to thresh it as soon as possible. The average crop is from four 
to five bushels to the acre. 
Quality of seed: Crimson Clover seeds are much larger than 
those of Red Clover. They are egg-shaped, plump and shiny yellow- 
ish brown with an orange tint. The legal weight is sixty pounds 
per bushel. 
RED CLOVER (Trifolium pratense L.) 
Plate 18; Seed, Plate 27, Fig. 30. 
Botanical description: Red Clover is mainly biennial. The 
year the seed germinates, only short leaves and stems are produced 
and no flowers. The second year the flowers are developed and the 
seed formed, and after ripening the seed the plant dies. As with most 
biennial plants, the root is a taproot; that is, the single main root 
gradually tapers downward and produces numerous side branches. 
On these are developed the small, rounded or egg-shaped nodules 
which contain the bacteria necessary for the proper development of 
the plant. From the upper end of the taproot, which is somewhat 
enlarged and generally known as the crown, are formed more or less 
numerous buds which develop into leafy stems. These as a rule 
are from one-half to two feet high, strictly upright or ascending from 
a decumbent base, the latter being the normal growth of stems 
developed from the outer margin of the crown. The stems are 
generally branched above the middle and the leaves are single at 
each joint. The three leaflets of which each leaf consists are oblong 
or egg-shaped and usually marked with a white spot of varying size 
and shape. The stipules (see page 15) attached to the base of the 
leaf stalk are triangular at the base and suddenly contracted into 
an awnlike point. This peculiar shape is a characteristic by which 
Red Clover can be readily distinguished from Zigzag Clover* (Tri- 
folium medium L.), which it closely resembles and is often confused 
with. The stipules of Zigzag Clover are narrow throughout. The 
Red Clover flowers are in a dense head, which is about an inch in 
diameter when fully developed. They vary from bright red to pur- 
ple but are sometimes white. 
*Zigzag Clover, so-called after the zigzag bending of the stems, has much narrower leaves 
than has Red Clover. It is a perennial plant, common in Europe where it grows along borders of 
woods and in open woodlands. The so-called Simpson's Perennial Red Clover from Prince Edward 
Island and Couch Grass Clover from the Maritime Provinces are of this species. 
