3 o FLOWERS OF THE FIELDS AND MEADOWS 



fall, and is furrowed, The flowers are stalked, the style is less than 

 the pod, the leaf-like organs on the leaf-stalks are ^-ovate, acute, 

 and the seeds are oval. 



The stems are rarely 18 in. long, and usually i ft., and on the 

 coast about 6 in. high, with larger flowers. The flowers are in bloom 

 in June and July. The plant is annual. 



The flowers are large and conspicuous, and are visited by bees, 

 Apis mellifica, Halictus flavipes. The tube is not so long as in 

 Red Clover, the flowers numerous and dense. The standard is broad, 

 and arches over the centre, and the style is hooked. The short calyx 

 allows the other parts of the flower to return to position after an insect 

 visit. 



The pod is a i -seeded fruit, not splitting into many parts, egg- 

 shaped, and when ripe it falls off or is broken off. It is therefore 

 dispersed by its own agency. 



Hop Trefoil is addicted to a sand soil. Like Hare's Foot Trefoil, 

 it also grows on the more ancient rock formations on stony barren 

 ground. 



It is a food plant for a beetle, Apion pisi, and a moth, Anthocera 

 trifolii. 



The second Latin name refers to its procumbent or trailing habit 

 It is called Hop or Yellow Clover, and Hop Trefoil. From the hop- 

 like shape of the flowers it is called Hop Trefoil. Not so valuable 

 as Red or White Clover, it is an annual. It often covers barren 

 ground where nothing else will grow. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



82. Trifolium procumbens, L. Stem erect, branches procumbent, 

 leaflets obovate, central petiole longest, stipules ovate, flowers yellow, 

 in dense, round, hop -like heads, forty flowers, standard dilated not 

 folded. 



Bird's Foot Trefoil (Lotus corniculatus, L.) 



This plant, which is known only, as regards its distribution, as a 

 member of the flora of the North Temperate Zone to-day, is a native 

 of Europe, N. Africa, N. and W. Asia. In Great Britain it is found 

 in every part, as far north as the Shetlands, growing at a height of 

 2800 ft. in the Highlands. It is found in Ireland and the Channel 

 Islands. 



The common Bird's Foot Trefoil forms clumps and patches of 

 golden colour in the meadows from June till late in the summer. 

 There it is associated with Yellow Rattle, the Daisy, the Ox-eye 



