188 WHITE CLOVER. 



WHITE CLOVER, DUTCH CLOVER, HONEYSUCKLE (Tri- 

 folium repens], is equally common with the rud, and 

 often forms a very considerable portion of the sward 

 or turf of pastures and fields of a tenacious and moist 

 soil. Its stems are spreading, slender, and creeping ; 



Fig. 150. White Clover. Fig- 151. 



leaves inversely heart-shaped ; flower-heads small, white ; 

 pods four-seeded ; root perennial. Flowers from May 

 to September. This plant is shown in Fig. 150. A 

 magnified flower is seen in Fig. 151. 



White clover is widely diffused over this country and 

 all the countries of Europe. It is indigenous probably 

 both to England and America. When first cultivated 

 from seed collected from wild plants, at the beginning 

 of the last century, it was recorded of a farmer that he 

 had " sowed the wild white clover which holds the 

 ground and decays not." Its chief value is as a pas- 

 ture grass, and it is as valuable for that purpose as the 

 red clover is for hay or for soiling, though there are 

 some who place a low estimate upon it. 



It easily accommodates itself to a great variety of 

 soils, but grows most luxuriantly in moist grounds and 

 moist or wet seasons. Indeed, it depends so much 

 upon a general distribution of rains through the season, 

 that when they are sufficiently abundant it comes in 



