694 



TRI 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



TRI 



be well rolled, it will cause the Clover to mat close upon the 

 ground, and form a thick sward. 



14. Trifolium Comosum ; Tufted Trefoil. Heads globu- 

 lar, umbelled, imbricate; banners bent down, permanent; 

 legumes four-seeded. Flowers small, white. Native of 

 America. 



15. Trifolium Alpinum; Alpine Trefoil. Heads umbelled; 

 scape naked; legumes two-seeded, pendulous; leaflets linear- 

 lanceolate. Root very large, perennial, running deep into 

 the ground ; stems very short, herbage smooth ; flowers on 

 a scape or naked stem, two or three inches in length, purple 

 or bright red. Native of the Alps, Pyrenees, and Monte 

 Baldo. It flowers from June to August. It is called Rey- 

 lissedes Alpes, from the taste of the roots, and because it is 

 used instead of Liquorice in the Alps. 



** Lagopuses ; with villose Calices. 



16. Trifolium Subterraneum; Subterraneous Trefoil. Heads 

 villose, four-flowered or thereabouts, with a central, reflexed, 

 rigid, stellate involucre, wrapping up the fruit. Root annual, 

 fibrous, furnished with knobs ; stems prostrate, about three 

 inches in length, or longer, spreading close to the ground, 

 almost concealed by the broad, pale purple-veined, sheathing 

 stipules of numerous leaves ; peduncles bearing three or four 

 flowers, at first erect, but before the fruit ripens they are bent 

 to the ground, producing from the extremities little white 

 thick fibres, star-like at the tips, which become recurved and 

 rigid, enveloping the fruit : these look so like roots, that till 

 Mr. Curtis explained their economy, they were supposed to 

 be roots; and Dillenius, aware that the plant, being an annual, 

 did not propagate itself by these supposed roots, conjectured 

 they might draw moisture to nourish the seed. The long, 

 slender, milk-white petals, render this species conspicuous, 

 though, when first seen, they are seldom taken for the flowers 

 of a Trefoil. Native of France, Italy, Spain, and England, 

 in exposed gravelly situations, and particularly on heaths, as 

 Blackheath, &c. ; Hyde Park, and Greenwich Park, where its 

 flowers are visible among the short grass, in May, and through 

 the summer, till August. It also occurs between Eltham and 

 Deptford in Kent; upon the Bath hills; near Bungay, in Suf- 

 folk ; at Gamlingay, and near White-wood, Cambridgeshire; 

 upon Mangotsfield common, near Bath ; in the Salt Marsh, 

 at Lymington ; on Shotover-hill, by the road to Cuddesdon, 

 Oxfordshire ; and at Ampthill and Clophill, Bedfordshire. 



17. Trifolium Globosum ; Globular Trefoil. Heads villose, 

 globular; upper calices destitute of a floret. Root annual; 

 stems filiform, a foot long, decumbent: the lower florets only 

 corolled and fertile ; the rest mutilated, and drying away into 

 a woolly substance, fill the head, bend back to the sides, and 

 conceal the fertile calices. Native of Arabia, &c. 



18. Trifolium Cherleri ; Hairy Pink Trefoil. Heads vil- 

 lose, globular, terminating, solitary ; calix very hairy, with 

 taper teeth ; stems procumbent ; leaves obcordate. This is 

 allied to the next species. Flowers dense, heaped ; corolla 

 small, shorter than the calix. It flowers in May and June. 

 Native of France, Italy, and Algiers. 



19. Trifolium Lappaceum ; Burr Trefoil. Spikes sub- 

 ovate, toothed ; calicine teeth setaceous, hispid ; stem patu- 

 lous ; leaves, ovate. An annual plant, with a dense tuft of 

 branching, leafy, quadrangular, variously spreading stems, a 

 foot high ; heads many-flowered, terminal, stalked. Native 

 of France, Spain, and Italy. 



20. Trifolium Rubens ; Long-spiked Trefoil. Spikes vil- 

 lose, long; corollas one-petalled ; stem erect; leaves serru- 

 late. The stipules, with their sheaths, are very large, in a 

 manner covering the stalk, and are not hairy : there is usually 

 only one spike of flowers to a stalk ; but in gardens there are 



sometimes two ; calix in reality smooth, but the teeth, hav- 

 ing long white hairs on them, which spread very much, the 

 whole has the appearance of being hairy ; the four upper 

 teeth are very short, but the fifth tooth is as long as the whole 

 corolla, and at least three times as long as the other teeth ; 

 colour of the corolla dark-red purple. Native of the south 

 of Europe, and of Algiers in Africa. 



21. Trifolium Pratense; Common Purple Trefoil, or Ho- 

 neysuckle Trefoil. Spikes ovate, dense ; stems ascending ; 

 corollas unequal; calicine teeth four, equal; stipules awned. 

 Roots perennial, striking almost right down, and scarcely 

 creeping, branching, granulated, ash-coloured; flowers many, 

 closely imbricate, erect, having a peculiar smell ; calix silky, 

 hairy, pale, sometimes tinged with purple, with ten streaks, 

 dark green or red, seldom brown. It is very distinct from the 

 next species, with which it has been confounded : the root is 

 much smaller; the stems not flexuose, in the wild plant they 

 are lower, more procumbent, often solitary, less branched", 

 and not unfrequently quite simple; the sheaths much larger, 

 not ciliate, and commonly veined with red or brown ; there 

 are always two floral leaves ; the leaflets are shorter, for the 

 most part ovate, blunter, commonly spotted with white, and 

 more indistinctly veined; the veins on the upper surface in 

 the living plant depressed, but in the dried one raised ; the 

 spike is smaller, much less frequently peduncled or double, 

 and not flatted at the top ; the calix never quite smooth ; the 

 corolla smaller, much more unequal, for the most part of a 

 pale purple, or at least with the wings not deeper-coloured 

 at the end. The cultivated Purple Trefoil, commonly known 

 by the name of Broad Clover, is much larger and smoother 

 than the wild plant, and has more stems; the leaflets are 

 sharper; the spike is mostly peduncled, and not so unfre- 

 quently double ; the calix is for the most part more villose, 

 with the lower tooth longer in proportion ; the banner and 

 wings of the corolla are more diverging ; the style is frequently 

 shorter, and the legume two-seeded. Mr. Miller asserts, that 

 he has often sown the seeds of the cultivated Red Clover, 

 and the Wild Red Meadow Trefoil, in the same bed, and that 

 they constantly produced the two species without varying. 

 Rod or Broad Clover has been long under culture in Flanders, 

 and other countries on the continent of Europe, and has at 

 length nearly surmounted the inveterate prejudices which 

 retard its general adoption in Great Britain. Besides the 

 principal use to which it is applied for feeding cattle, it may 

 be mentioned, that the heads are used in Sweden to dye 

 woollen green ; with alum they produce a light, and with 

 copperas a dark green : the seeds also yield a dye. Common 

 Purple Trefoil varies sometimes with a white flower; a single 

 plant has been observed with white or cream-coloured flow- 

 ers. Other varieties have been frequently offered to public 

 notice, under the names of Cow-Grass and Marl-Grass: the 

 former seems to differ from the Wild Broad Clover, by larger 

 heads of flowers, and not flowering so early ; the latter has 

 its name from being the production of marl land ; it bears 

 a striking analogy to the Broad Red Clover, with this dif- 

 ference, that it will remain much longer in the land. Pro- 

 pagation and Culture. Since the general cultivation of this 

 species in England, there has been great improvement made 

 of the clay lands, which before produced but little Rye Grass, 

 and other coarse bents ; which, by being sown with Red Clo- 

 ver, have produced more than six times the quantity of fodder 

 they had formerly on the same land, whereby the farmers 

 have been enabled to feed a much greater stock of cattle than 

 they could before, which has enriched the ground, and pre- 

 pared it for corn ; and where the land is kept in tillage, it is 

 the usual method now among the farmers, to lay down their 



