BED CLOVER DESCRIPTION. 185 



icy now governs the mass of men, and this policy has 

 led to greater care and attention to the cultivation of 

 the grasses. 



The culture of the natural grasses takes the prece- 

 dence, therefore, in this country, in point of time, from 

 the causes already indicated ; but the minds of men are 

 so influenced by the routine of ordinary practice, that 

 the introduction of clover in the early part of the last 

 century met with great prejudice, which is now nearly, 

 if not quite extinct. 



RED CLOVER (Trifolium pratense), though not in- 

 cluded in the family of grasses, is not only exten- 

 sively cultivated, but is found to be one of the most 

 valuable and economical forage plants. It belongs to 

 the pulse family, or Leguminosce, which includes the 

 larger portion of forage plants called artificial grasses, 

 in distinction from the gramiueae, the only true, and 

 often called the natural grasses. The generic name, 

 trefoil, or trifolium, is derived from the Latin tres, three, 

 and folium, a leaf; and the genus can generally be very 

 readily distinguished by the number and arrangement 

 of its leaves in three leaflets, and flowers in dense 

 oblong or globular heads. 



The stems of red clover are ascending, somewhat 

 hairy ; leaflets oval or obovate, often notched at the 

 end, and marked on the upper side with a pale spot ; 

 heads ovate, and set directly upon the stalk, instead 

 of upon branches. This species is regarded as by far 

 the most important of the whole genus for the practi- 

 cal purposes of agriculture. It has passed into a num- 

 ber of varieties, one of which is biennial, another peren- 

 nial ; the latter by long cultivation becoming biennial, 

 while the former as is true of most biennial, and 

 many annual plants assumes, to some extent, the 

 16* 



