WHITE AND GREENISH WILD FLOWERS 



to investigate these hoary top-knots when you first find 

 them, you are likely to fall into the same error. Most 

 people fail to identify this species as a member of the 

 Clover tribe at sight, notwithstanding there is no get- 

 ting away from its trifoliate leaf. The generic name, 

 Trifolium, is derived from the Latin tres, three, and 

 folium, a leaf, and alludes to the three-parted com- 

 pound leaf, which is characteristic of this family. 

 The name Clover is thought to have been derived 

 from the Latin clava, meaning clubs, in connection 

 with the mythical three-headed club of the mighty 

 Hercules, which the Clover leaf is supposed to resemble. 

 The so-called clubs on playing cards are believed to 

 have originated from the Clover leaf. The Rabbit- 

 foot Clover is an immigrant from Europe. The 

 name comes from the fancied resemblance of the 

 furry flower, to that popular token of good luck, 

 the foot of a rabbit. The annual, slender, erect 

 stalk is much branched and covered with minute silky 

 hairs. It grows from six to eighteen inches in 

 height and every branching joint of stalk and stem 

 is sheathed with a stipule having a pair of long, curv- 

 ing, needle-like points. The three small, thin, vel- 

 vety leaflets forming the compound leaf flare from the 

 tip of a short, slender stem. They are long and very 

 narrow, lance-shaped, the broader part toward the 

 rather blunt three-pointed apex, and they taper into 

 short stems at the base. The length is less than an 

 inch. The midrib is noticeable the entire length, and 

 finally forms the centre one of the three tiny tips at the 



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