98 FODDER AND PASTURE PLANTS. 



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. 



