MARRIAGE AMONG THE CLOVERS 



119 



so as to show the way the bladder-like calyx grows 

 out around the pod as it ripens. 



Now, what is oddest of all, every one of twenty 

 or twenty-five species of clover has some dodge of 

 its own for protecting its seeds after fertilisation. 

 This shows how much these rich grains are sought 

 after, and how carefully the plant is compelled to 

 guard them. In some kinds, the calyx is a loose 

 fluff of silky hair, enclosing the pod ; in others, it 

 is hard like a nut, or has 

 stiff and pointed lobes 

 which are sharp and 

 prickly. One species 

 closes its hardened lips 

 over the growing seeds 

 and pretends to be 

 empty ; a second de- 

 velops a starry, thistle- 

 like head, with tufts of 

 thick hair, which conceal 

 the swelling pod from 

 observation, 

 subterranean 

 hit upon a 

 device. It is 





NO. l6. STRAWBERRY CLOVER, A 

 SINGLE INFLATED FLOWER 

 CUT OPEN. 



But the 

 clover has 

 still stranger and more ingenious 



a little creeping annual, much ad- 



dicted to dry pastures or close-cropped hillsides, 

 and particularly common on low knolls or barrows, 

 nibbled over by numerous sheep and donkeys. 

 Under these circumstances, it has a hard fight to 

 protect its nutritious seeds and seedlings. It has 

 taken, therefore, to producing small heads of loose 

 white flowers, which look at first sight like poor 



