MARRIAGE AMONG THE CLOVERS 



No. 10, all composed of brown and withered 

 flowers, looks externally as if it were quite dead ; 

 but if you remove or cut open the sere and papery 

 outer parts of the flower, you will find within them 

 a vigorous little green pod, in which the minia- 

 ture peas, after fertilisation, are maturing actively. 

 In fact, the plant is 

 only pretending to 

 be dead ; yet so 

 effective is the pre- 

 tence, and so well 

 does the papery 

 covering guard each 

 pod against the egg- 

 laying insects, that 

 I cannot remember 

 ever to have found 

 a single grub in the 

 seeds of clover. 

 This may seem to 

 you a small matter 

 to guard against ; 

 but if you open 

 the seed-capsules of 

 the common little 

 mouse - ear chick- 

 weed, which has no such protection, you will find 

 in almost every capsule a small red grub busily 

 employed in eating the seeds which the plant had 

 laid by for the continuance of its species. It is 

 thus a distinct advantage to the clovers in the 

 struggle for life that they have invented devices 



H 



NO. II. DUTCH CLOVER, ONE DRY 

 FLOWER CUT OPEN TO SHOW THE 

 POD AND SEEDS RIPENING. 



