FABACEAE. 



181 



3. Trifolium ripens L. 



White, Dutch or Honeysuckle 

 Clover. (Fig. 202.) Perennial, 

 glabrous or with, a few scattered 

 hairs, the branches often rooting 

 at the nodes, 4'-12' long. Leaves 

 long-petioled ; stipules ovate-lan- 

 ceolate, membranous, acute, 2"-6" 

 long; leaflets short-stalked, obo- 

 vate, emarginate or obcordate, 

 broadly cuneate at the base, den- 

 ticulate, 4"-10" long; heads long- 

 peduncled; flowers 3V'-6" long; 

 pedicels l"-2i" long, finally re- 

 flexed; corolla 2-3 times as long 

 as the calyx; calyx-teeth acumi- 

 nate, somewhat shorter than the 

 tube; pod about 4-seeded. 



Occasional in grassy places. In- 

 troduced. Native of Europe. Widely 

 naturalized in North America. Flow- 

 ers nearly all the year around. None 

 of the true clovers are important 

 as fodder plants in Bermuda, the 

 climate being too warm for their 

 successful establishment. 



6. INDIGOFEEA L. 



Perennial herbs or shrubs. Foliage often more or less densely clothed 

 with simple 2-horned or forking hairs. Leaves alternate, unequally pinnate, 

 or sometimes 3-foliolate or rarely 1-foliolate; the leaflets entire. Flowers 

 perfect, in axillary spikes or racemes. Calyx-lobes oblique, nearly equal or 

 the upper shorter. Corolla pink, orange or purple; standard broad, sessile or 

 clawed, persistent, the wings somewhat elongated, slightly cohering with the 

 erect keel" and like it deciduous. Stamens 10, usually monadelphous, or one 

 partially distinct ; anthers all alike. Ovary sessile or nearly so ; style glabrous ; 

 ovules numerous or rarely few or solitary. Pod linear to subglobose, angled 

 or turgid. Seeds subglobose or flattened. [Name from the yield of indigo by 

 some species.] About 275 species, of warm and temperate regions. 



The species common in Bermuda has been mistaken for the true indigo 

 (Indigo f era tinctoria L.) which is similar to it, but has narrower and longer 

 pods. Formerly important dye-plants, their use has now been largely super- 

 seded through the production of dyes from coal-tar synthetically. 



