80 COLIN- CLOUT'S CALENDAR. 



hard, stringy leaves and stalks. Everybody knows the 

 difference in effect between a feed of oats and a feed of 

 straw. Pulse, indeed, forms the most valuable set of 

 fodder plants and human foodstuffs in the world, except 

 only the grasses ; because the seeds are almost always 

 large and well supplied with albumen. Cows will turn 

 aside from any grass to red clover. Observe, too, that 

 these clover blossoms, like most other highly specialized 

 bee-flowers, are purple. The common small pea-blos- 

 soms, such as nonsuch, lotus, kidney-vetch, and medick, 

 are all yellow ; and so are even gorse and broom. Some 

 of the smaller and simpler clovers, too, still retain this 

 aboriginal yellow hue ; but the better kinds, which have 

 advanced further in specialization for bees, preserve for 

 us the various upward stages of white, cream-color, pink, 

 red, and scarlet, till at last we reach the highest level in 

 these purple heads the highest level, that is to say, yet 

 attained by a clover ; for no species of the genus has so 

 far acquired the most peculiar bee-tint of all, which is 

 dark blue or ultramarine, as seen in the violet or the 

 bugloss. 



And now let us look at the little white straggling 

 kind of clover which grows all over the shallow grass 

 of the knoll here. In shape, its florets are just the same 

 long tubular blossoms as those of the purple clover ; but 

 there are only two or three of them on each head, instead 

 of forty or fifty. See how well adapted they are, how- 

 ever, to their habitat. The stems and leaves and buds 

 creep prostrate along the ground, so as to get as much 

 as possible out of the way of the close-biting sheep ; 

 but the flowers turn up straight just at the moment of 

 blossoming, so as to catch the attention of the passing 

 bee. Both kinds are sweet-scented, like most bee- 

 flowers, and with a very suggestive savor of honey in 



