70 FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS. 



so freely seen, and the sultry heat of the summer and 

 autumn months gives a different character to the plant, 

 a hard, parched, and wiry look taking the place of the 

 soft and tender growth of the early summer days. The 

 bird's-foot trefoil is a perennial; the plant is ordinarily 

 about a foot high, though in this respect a considerable 

 difference may be noted, some specimens being barely 

 half this height, while under certain circumstances plants 

 may be found almost as high again. The leaves have three 

 leaflets at their apex and two others at their base, at the 

 point of springing from the stem. The flower-stalks are 

 of considerable length, and bear at their extremity a cluster 

 of bright yellow flowers, from two or three to ten or twelve 

 in number ; a small leaf will always be found at the point 

 where the umbel of flowers is given off from the peduncle, 

 or flower-stem. The buds before their full expansion are 

 often a deep red in colour, and plants may occasionally be 

 found where this red tinge is sufficiently perceptible 

 throughout the whole period of flowering to become a very 

 marked and noticeable feature. The pods that succeed the 

 flowers are cylindrical in form and about an inch in length, 

 and as they are all nearly horizontal in direction, and 

 spring from the same level, they bear a very good resem- 

 blance to the foot of a bird hence the common name of the 

 plant. " This small herb groweth not above a span high, 

 with many branches spread upon the ground, set with 

 many wings of small leaves. The flowers grow upon the 

 branches, many small ones being set a head together, 

 which afterwards turneth into small jointed cods, well 

 resembling the claws of small birds, whence it took its 

 name/' The specific name, Cornicnlatns, is derived from 

 the Latin corniciila, a little crow, the diminutive form of 



