COMMON PURPLE TREFOIL. 



Trifolium pratense. 



Class DiADELPHiA. Order Decandkia. Nat. Orel. LiGUMiNOSiE. 

 Pea and Bean Tribe, 



The sweet purple Clover, how pleasant it 

 makes our summer walk by its perfume ! and 

 it is so attractive to the bees that one always 

 sees these insects gathering about the pastures 

 where it abounds. This is the Clover so much 

 cultivated for hay, the plant which the Anglo- 

 Saxons called doeferioort, because of its cleft 

 leaves ; from which also it has the name of 

 Trefoil. The triple leaf was, in former days, 

 in much repute as a charm against magic, and 

 our Clover was said by old writers to be not 

 only •' good for cattle, but noisome to witches.'' 

 Happily, we of later generations are no be- 

 hevers in such superstitions ; but there was a 

 day when not only the simple villager, but 

 the knight, wore the leaf on his arm, under 

 the notion that it rendered him safe from 

 charms an(f spells. The poet alludes to this 

 old practice : — 



*' Woe, woe to the wight who meets the green knight, 

 Except, on his faulchion arm. 

 Spell-proof he bear, like the brave St. Clair, 

 The holy Trefoil's charm." 



