Wild Flowers East of the Rockies 173 



RABBIT-FOOT CLOVER; STONE CLOVER (Tri- 



folium arvense) (EUROPEAN). It is not always the 

 largest, brightest colored and showiest flowers that 

 are the most beautiful; the present species has a 

 graceful, charming, silky beauty that places it far in 

 advance of many of its brighter colored companions 

 in the field. Yet, how often are its fuzzy heads pass- 

 ed by as weeds unworthy of notice. It is because of 

 this silky, fuzziness that it receives its name of 

 Rabbit-foot, and from the fact that it often grows 

 in stony or rocky fields that it has been given its 

 second name. 



The stalk of this species is soft, silky and from 4 

 to 10 inches high. The light green leaves have three 

 leaflets with blunt tips. The flower heads are com- 

 posed of numerous florets; it is the long, pink, feath- 

 ery tips of the five-parted calyx that gives the blos- 

 som its silky fuzziness; it is quite fragrant and is vis- 

 ited by the smallest butterflies. You may find this 

 species everywhere within our range. 



RED CLOVER (Trifolium pratense) is the most 

 common and the most valuable species of clover. 

 One would hardly believe, knowing how abundant it 

 is in all parts of our range, that this clover could have 

 been introduced and have become so widely distri- 

 buted, yet such is the case. One reason that it does 

 so well in this country is that we have a very large 

 number of bumblebees, and it has been found that 

 clover is so dependent upon these insects for fertili- 

 zation, that, without them, it will soon die out. 



The little florets, composing the globular flower- 

 head, are bright crimson-pink; they abound in nec- 

 tar and are sweet-scented. The three leaflets that 

 make up each leaf, have whitish-green triangles in 

 the middle. The plant stems are hairy and from 8 

 to 24 inches high. 



