150 MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



chapter on varieties in Hunt's "Forage and Fiber Crops" 

 where 30 species are listed and we are assured that 250 

 species exist. Since that book was written several new 

 ones have been introduced from the Old World. We 

 have not time here even to list them, but must content 

 ourselves with describing those that are most commonly 

 seen. One may know the clovers by their having leaflets 

 in threes and each one attached at the main point, whereas 

 in alfalfa and other plants belonging to the family of 

 Medicagos the leaflets are differently arranged, with the 

 two leaflets set down the mid stem a little way. 



White Clover or Dutch Clover. I sit to write this be- 

 neath an oak tree on the lawn and all about me is the 

 green carpet of Kentucky bluegrass and little white clover 

 (Trifolium repens). I choose this little clover to head the 

 list because it seems the most universally found of any of 

 the clovers. I have seen it in every land that I have ever 

 visited except in the burning deserts, and even there it 

 comes soon after man has begun to pour cooling streams 

 of water over the thirsty soil. White clover seed is very 

 small and easily carried ; it is probably not digested when 

 eaten by animals and thus the animals themselves in their 

 journeying have taken it about. While white clover is 

 found nearly over all America, yet I think it must be an 

 introduced species since had it been truly native to 

 America it should have been found on the prairies when 

 white men first saw them, and there is no record of this. 



White clover is a creeping plant, seldom rising more 

 than i' high, but making a dense mat of herbage over the 

 ground. The stems lying on the earth root freely after 



