blADELPHIA DECANDRIA. 405 



piilis oppofitis membranaceis, corollis monope- 

 talis. Sp. pi. 1082. y Manlifs^. fecund, p. 451. 

 {Moris, hiji.f. 2. /. 12,/. 6. Rivin. /, 11. Black- 

 well /. 20. y vcir. Raj. Syn. ^. 328. ^ 13. /. i.) 



Purple Trefoil or Clover. Anglis. 



In meadows and paftures frequent. %. VI-IX. 



The ftalks are numerous from one root, reclining 

 at the bafe, and branched : the flipuLt are whirr j, 

 marked with red veins, and terminated with ca- 

 pillary beards : the leaves have fliort footflalks, 

 and are downy, the lower ones of a roundifli oval 

 figure, the upper ones more acute, and generally- 

 marked with a vv'hite aEch ; the head of flowers 

 is roundifh, purple, and fefiilc, placed between 

 two oppofite, ternate, fefTile leaves, which are 

 fubtended by a pair of broad membranaceous 

 JijpuU, ferving the purpofe of a common calyx : 

 the calyx is ftreaked with ten lines, and is tubu- 

 lar and hairy : the fegments are capillary, ciliated 

 on the fides, the lower one by much the longeft : 

 the tube of the Corolla is longer than the Vexil- 

 lum or upper petal, which is plaited, flrait, and 

 reflcx'd on the edges. 



It affords a very plentiful fodder to horfes and otlier 

 cattle, but when they feed too greedily on the 

 frcOi herb, it blows them up in fuch a manner 

 with wind, that unlefs they are fpeedily relieved 

 by tapping them in the belly, or fome other hmi- 

 lar operation, they foon perifh. In Ireland the 

 poor people, in a fcarcity of corn, rrake a kind 

 D d 3 of 



