80 PERMANENT AND TEMPORARY PASTURES 



of its existence is the best possible preparation for the following 

 wheat crop. 



Red Clover is incapable of self-fertilisation, and the 

 Humble Bee is almost exclusively the medium by which 

 pollen is conveyed from anther to stigma. In Australia and 

 New Zealand, until the Humble Bee was introduced, seed 

 was rarely ripened, and the Red Clover sown in those colonies 

 was all imported, principally from England. 



The character and culture of Red Clover are so well 

 understood as to render further remark needless. 



For illustration, description, and chemical analysis, see 

 5,y. Edition. 



TRIFOLIUM PRATENSE PERENNE 

 (Peremiial Red Clover, or Cow Grass). 



This clover doubtless originated in a cross between 

 Trlfolium pratense, or Broad Clover, and Trifolium medium^ 

 or Zigzag Clover.^ The latter has never been in commerce, 

 nor has it been grown as a crop, except for experimental 

 purposes. Yet some writers have fallen into the error of 

 confusing it with the true Perennial Red Clover, which in 

 Berkshne, Oxfordshire, Hampshire, and Wiltshire is known 

 as Cow Grass. In these counties Cow Grass is of immense 

 importance, and enters largely into the rotation of arable 

 land. The use of it is extending to other parts of England, 

 and it is astonishing that so valuable a plant has not long 

 since been widely recognised as indispensable for temporary 



^ Trifolium medimn. — The Cow Grass, or Zigzag Clover, of botanists is so called 

 from the decided zigzag growth. So distinct is the plant that it can scarcely be classed 

 with Red Clover at all. The blossom is darker in colour than that of TrifoHum 

 pratense, the head le.<;s dense, invariably growing on a long peduncle instead of 

 immediately adjacent to the leaf. The absence of the broad membranous stipule, 

 and the substitution of one which is long and narrow, terminating gradually in a spear- 

 like point, is also a marked characteristic, by which those who have once observed 

 this peculiarity are never again likely to mistake Trifolium medium for Trifolium 

 pratense. 



