122 HOUSE, GARDEN, AND FIELD 



XXV. WHITE CLOVER. 



On my close-shaven lawn the white clover spreads fast, 

 and drives out the grasses. To grow freely in close turf, 

 a plant must enjoy some special advantages, for it has to 

 hold its own against a particularly severe competition. 

 What is the secret of the success with which clover 

 encounters its rivals ? In summer- drought we see that 

 the clover keeps green, while the close-cut grass turns 

 brown. Nearly all round the year the clover continually 

 pushes out new branches, which root themselves in the 

 soil. Its runners insinuate themselves among the grass, 

 grow strong, expand their leaves, and often end by occupy- 

 ing the site completely, leaving no room for any other 

 plants. But though on the lawn clover generally gains 

 on the grasses, in the paddock the grasses gain on the 

 clover. It is hard to find a single plant of clover where 

 the soil is rich and damp, for there it is completely over- 

 shadowed. By the side of a footpath the clover is always 

 pushing out into the sandy walk, while the tall grasses 

 establish themselves securely under the hedge. The 

 advantage of the white clover is merely local ; it prevails 

 over the grasses where the ground is hard and dry, and 

 also where upward growth is checked by the lawn-mower, 

 browsing cattle, or the tread of foot. But in the paddock, 

 still more in the meadow or the hedge, the grass-haulms, 

 drawing out their jointed stems like perspective-glasses, 

 overtop the clover, which is nowhere in the competition. 



Each plant has advantages of its own. Clover has a 

 trefoil leaf with a long leaf-stalk ; a grass has long strap- 

 like leaves with no leaf-stalks at all. Clover spreads out 

 its leaf like an umbrella, the grass like a pennon. The 

 umbrella-like leaves of clover cover the ground more com- 

 pletely, and catch a great part of the possible sunlight. 

 Some adjustment of the leaves is necessary in most plants 

 to keep them out of one another's way ; in clover this is 



