TRI 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



TR I 



693 



twenty years by the side of Common Melilot in the Paris 

 garden, without varying. Sown in the field on a light soil, 

 but wet, it grew above eight feet high, and produced a great 

 quantity of feed; it was given to cattle both green and dry, 

 and they preferred it to every other food, especially when fresh 

 cut. In a loose dry soil it will rise to six feet high, and in 

 such land may be sown in autumn upon one earth, but in wet 

 land it is safer to sow it in spring, at which time the land 

 must have two earths, and be well broken with the harrow. 

 The seed being smaller than that of Clover, and the plant 

 spreading more, half the quantity of seed usually sown of 

 Clover will be sufficient. If sown in autumn, it may some- 

 times be mown in November : the first cuttings may be made 

 into hay, but the last must be given to cattle green. By 

 means of regular cutting, it may be preserved several years ; 

 but if left to ripen its seed, soon becomes weak, and may be 

 considered as a biennial. When cultivated by itself, it seems 

 to be more productive than Clover, but the produce becomes 

 much more considerable when cultivated with the Siberian 

 Vetch ; for these plants possess all the qualities which can 

 make their union desirable : they last the same time ; shoot 

 at the same period ; flower and seed together ; extend their 

 roots to different depths : one produces a thin and tender food, 

 the other more solid and substantial ; and the warm quality 

 of the one is tempered by the aqueousness of the other. 



6. Trifolium Italicum ; Italian Melilot Trefoil. Legumes 

 racemed, naked, two-seeded, wrinkled, obtuse; stem erect; 

 leaflets entire; flowers small, yellow, in racemes. It flowers 

 from June to August. Native of Italy, Barbary, &c. 



7. Trifolium Creticum ; Cretan Melilot Trefoil. Legumes 

 raceraed, naked, two-seeded, membranaceous ; stem nearly 

 upright; flowers pale yellow, in racemes, nodding. It flow- 

 ers from June to August. Native of Candia, and of Algiers. 



8. Trifolium Ornithopodioides ; Bird's-foot Melilot Trefoil. 

 Legumes naked, eight-seeded, about three together, twice 

 as long as the calix ; stems declined. Root fibrous, with 

 small fleshy knobs, which appear to be designed for enabling 

 it to resist accidental drought during summer; peduncles 

 axillary, much shorter than the leaf-stalks, bearing usually 

 two, but sometimes one, three, or even four slender pale red 

 flowers, growing parallel to each other. Native of Denmark, 

 France, and Britain, on dry gravelly heaths and pastures, 

 and among short grass; flowering in June and July. Its 

 small size, and prostrate position, have probably caused it 

 it to be thought more rare than it really is. It has been 

 found among corn half a mile from Tadcaster towards Sher- 

 born ; also near Oxford ; on the sandy banks by the sea-side 

 near Tolesbury in Essex ; and on Blacicheath ; also on Mouse- 

 hold heath near Norwich ; about Mazarion and Penzance in 

 Cornwall ; and at Maitland Bridge, between Musselburgh 

 and Edinburgh. 



** Lotoid: Legumes covered, many-seeded. 



9. Trifolium Lupinaster ; Bastard Lupine Trefoil. Heads 

 halved; leaves quinate, sessile; legumes many-seeded. Root 

 perennial ; stems several, from a foot to eighteen inches in 

 height, round, with seven or eight joints, green or purplish. 

 There are usually several heads at the end of the stem, of a 

 roundish form, with the flowers pretty thickly set; corolla 

 purple. The circumstance of having more than three leaflets, 

 usually five, is sufficient to distinguish this species. It flow- 

 ers in July and August. -Native of Siberia. 



10. Trifolium Reflexum ; Reflex-headed Trefoil. Fruit- 

 ing heads bent back ; legumes three-seeded ; leaves downy. 



Kowers of a fine purplish red. Native of Virginia. 

 11. Trifolium Strictum; Upright Trefoil. Heads globu- 

 r; legumes two-seeded; calices length of the corollas; leaf- 



lets serrulate ; stipules rhombed. Root annual ; stem erect, 

 branched at bottom, patulous, even ; corolla very small. 

 Native of Italy and Spain, in pastures. 



12. Trifolium Hybridum ; Mule Trefoil. Heads umbelled; 

 legumes four-seeded. Stem ascending; root perennial; pedun- 

 cles not very long, but yet jointed as in the species next follow- 

 ing ; corollas gaping. Native of several parts of Europe. 



13. Trifolium Repens ; Creqring White Trefoil, or Dutch 

 Clover. Heads umbelled ; legumes four-seeded. Stem 

 creeping; root perennial, fibrous; leaves on long petioles; 

 flowers many, as far as sixty in a close head, very large in 

 the cultivated plant, and of a round shape ; each flower is on 

 a short pedicel, and has a small awl-shaped bracte ; corolla 

 white or tinged with purple, permanent. The flowers stand 

 upright till they are withering, and then hang down. It is 

 doubtful at what time this plant first came into cultivation in 

 this country. On all our good lands it seems to arise spon- 

 taneously, but is nevertheless much encouraged by the 

 spreading of ashes or other manure. It does not come early, 

 neither is it of a tall growth ; but it forms an excellent bottom 

 in pastures, and produces great abundance of succulent stalks 

 and leaves, affording late feed in dry summers when most of 

 the grasses are burnt up. It is common in pastures through- 

 out the greatest part of Europe ; flowering from the end of 

 May to September. There are many varieties, depending on 

 richness or poverty of soil. Two of them are remarkable ; 

 one with leaves of a deep purple colour, cultivated in gar- 

 dens as an ornamental plant; the other proliferous, or having 

 small heads of leaves growing out of the flowers. In a moist 

 fertile soil it acquires a more upright branching stem, but 

 still remains sufficiently distinct from the preceding species. 

 Propagation and Culture. The seed of this plant is annu- 

 ally imported from Flanders byway of Holland, from whence 

 it received the name of Dutch Clover ; not that it is any 

 more a native of that country than of this, but because there 

 they collect the seeds in larger quantities, which might be 

 done here if the same care were taken with this species as 

 is bestowed upon the Red Clover sort: it would well repay 

 every farmer that would sow an acre or two with the White 

 Clover seeds, by saving the expense of purchasing, and by 

 the sale of any quantity he may have to spare. It is an 

 abiding plant, with branches trailing on the ground, and 

 sends out many roots from every joint; which thrcken, and 

 make the closest sward of any of the sown Grasses, and is 

 the sweetest feed for all sorts of cattle yet known : therefore 

 when land is designed to be laid down for pasture, with 

 intent to be continued so, there should always be a quantity 

 of the seeds of this plant sown with the Grass-seeds. The 

 usual allowance is eight pounds to one acre of land, but it 

 should never be sown with corn ; for if there be a crop of 

 corn, the grass will be so weak under it as to be scarcely 

 worth standing : yet such is the covetousness of farmers, that 

 they will not be prevailed on to alter their old custom of 

 laying down their grounds with a crop of corn, though they 

 lose twice the value of their corn by the poorness of the 

 grass, which never will come to a good sward, and one whole 

 season is also lost ; for if this seed be sown in the spring 

 without corn, there will be a crop of hay to mow by the 

 middle or latter end of July, and a much better after-feed 

 for cattle in the following autumn or winter, than the grass 

 which is sown with the corn will produce the second year. 

 The seeds of this sort may also be sown with Grass-seeds in 

 autumn, in .the manner hereafter directed for the Common 

 Red Clover; and this autumnal sowing, if the seeds grow 

 kindly, will afford a good early crop of hay, in the following 

 spring ; and if, after the hay is taken ofT the land, the ground 



