Novenabei'. 19l'1 



S< 'li:.\Tll"l(; AORICIIT.TURE 



81 



Botanical Varieties. 



AJany European botanists ilistiuj'uisli 

 between two main varieties of red clover, 

 viz.: Wild Red elover {'rrifolinm pj-atoifif 

 L. var. spoilt a lieu III Willk.) and Cultivated 

 Red Clover (Trifolimn praiense L. var. 

 sativum Sclireb. &. Hi)pp.i. The distihe- 

 tion, "however, appear.s to be a ratlicr un- 

 ecrtain one. Thus, to mention only two 

 authors of recent years, Witte {'-i, p. ol) 

 maintains that the "Wild Red eh)ver is more 

 durable, low in stature witji smaller hnives 

 and more woody stems than the Cultivated 

 Red clover, while Liiidman (1, p. 388) 

 describes the wild form as tall, though of 

 a low stature on poor land and in alpine 

 regions. 



Whether, it really is possible and justi- 

 fiable to distinguish between wild aud 

 cultivated red clover as two botauieally 

 separate types, is rather doubtful. From 

 ob.servations made by the writer in Canada 

 it is apparent that if botanical character- 

 istics such as height and mode of growth, 

 size of leaves, etc., were to determine 

 Mhether various wild - growing plants 

 should be e-lassified with the wild or with 

 the cultivated type, a large percentage of 

 wild-growing red clover plants would have 

 to be referred tb Wild Red clover {Tri- 

 foUuin pratense var. spoutaiieum). But 

 this can, on t-he other hand, not be done, 

 for the reason that red clover is not in- 

 digenous to Canada, all sorcalled wild 

 clover plants being descendants from in- 

 troduced Cultivated Red clover {Trifolium 

 pratense var. sativum). Under the cir- 

 cumstances it appears that the separation 

 between Wild and Cultivated Red clover 

 as botanic-ally different varieties is a very 

 artificial one. Similar views fiaxe long 

 been expressed by certain European bot- 

 anists, f. i. Koch (1, p. 145) who says, 

 after giving a description of T. pratense 

 sativum: "Praeterea ne minimam quidem 

 differentiam inter plantam eultam et syl- 

 vestrem observavi."' 



" From a practical agricultural point of 

 view the distinction between Wild and 

 Cultivated Red clover as representing es- 

 sentially different types is also not onl}- 

 difficult to draw, but unessential, for the 

 reasons that, in the first place, all culti- 



vated red clover is nothing but wild red 

 clover i)Hroduced into cultivation in com- 

 l)aratively recent historical time, and, sec- 

 ondly, because thei-e are several agricul- 

 tural ■■ varieties" ■ concerning which it is 

 generally stated that they have been devel- 

 oped by propagation of wild forms. Such 

 varieties are f. i. C(»w grass in England, 

 Matten clover in Switzerland, Bullen clov- 

 er in Western Germany (Stehlcr & Schro- 

 ter. 2, p. 102), and Toten clover in Nor- 

 way (Nielsen, 1, p. 196). 



Systematic ^Dotanists generally distin- 

 guish between European Red clover (Tri- 

 folium pratense L. var. suhnurJum) and 

 so-called American Red clover (Trifolium 

 pratense L. var. expansum W. & K.). T.he 

 European Red clover is, as the latin name 

 indicates, characterized by having appres- 

 sed-hairy or almost perfectly smooth stems 

 and petioles. To this variety belong most 

 cultivated European Red clovers and also 

 some American ones, notably Chilean Red 

 clover and the so-called Orel Red elover 

 introduced from Russia and described by 

 Brand (1). The American Red clover is 

 characterized b.v having stems and petioles 

 covered with spreading hairs. 



In this connection it may be pointed out 

 that the name American Red clover is a 

 somewhat misleading one as it may imply 

 t.hat the variety in question is of American 

 origin. This is, hoAvever. not the case since, 

 as is pointed out before. Red clover is 

 not indigenous to the American continent. 

 The variety was first described from Au.s- 

 tria-Hungary under the name of var. ex- 

 pansum and was, according to Ascherson 

 & Graehner (1, vol. 6, p. 555), probably 

 introduced into North America from Aus- 

 tria-Hungary. The reason w^hy it is called 

 American Red clover is that it has for a 

 long time been referred to as T. pratense 

 L. var. americanum Harz. 



Biological Varieties. 



From a biological point of view, two 

 main groups of varieties may be briefly 

 mentioned, viz.: Early varieties and Late 

 varieties. As the names indicate, the two 

 groups differ from each other in respect 

 to the time required to reach full devel- 

 opment, there being several weeks differ- 

 ence in the time of blossomino- between 



