plant on account of its supposed virtue in a disease which was 

 known as " Robert's plague," after Robert, Duke of Normandy. 

 In some of the early writers it is alluded to as the " holy herb of 

 Robert." 



In fruit the styles of this plant split apart with an elasticity 

 which serves to project the seeds to a distance, it is said, of 

 twenty-five feet. 



BUSH CLOVER. 



~ Lespedeza pro cumbens. Pulse Family (p. 16). 



Stems. Slender, trailing, and prostrate. Leaves. Divided into three 

 clover-like leaflets. Flowers. Papilionaceous, purplish-pink, veiny. Pod. 

 Small, rounded, flat, one-seeded. 



The flowers of this plant often have the appearance of spring- 

 ing directly from the earth amid a mass of clover leaves. They 

 are common in dry soil in the late summer and autumn, as are 

 the other members of the same genus. 



L. reticulata is an erect, very leafy species with similar 

 blossoms, which are chiefly clustered near the upper part of the 

 stem. The bush clovers betray at once their kinship with the 

 tick-trefoils, but are usually found in more sandy, open places. 



L. polystachya has upright wand -like stems from two to four 

 feet high. Its flowers grow in oblong spikes on elongated stalks. 

 Those of L. capitata are clustered in globular heads. 



TICK-TREFOIL. 



Desmodium Canadense. Pulse Family (p. 16). 



Stem. Hairy, three to six feet high. Leaves. Divided into three some- 

 what oblong leaflets. Flowers. Papilionaceous, dull purplish-pink, growing 

 in densely flowered racemes. Pod. Flat, deeply lobed on the lower margin, 

 from one to three inches long, roughened with minute hooked hairs by means 

 of which they adhere to animals and clothing. 



Great masses of color are made by these flowers in the bogs 

 and rich woods of midsummer. They are effective when seen in 

 the distance, but rather disappointing on closer examination, 

 and will hardly bear gathering or transportation. They are by 

 far the largest and most showy of the genus. 



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