Marriage among the Clovers 



113 



No. 10, all composed of brown and withered 

 flowers, looks externally as it it we* • quite dead ; 

 but it you remove or cut ojxmi the sere and papery 

 outer parts of the flower, you will iind within them 

 a vigorous little j^reen pod, in which the minia- 

 ture peas, after fertilisation, are maturing actively. 

 In fact, the plant is 

 only pretending to 

 be dead ; yet so 

 effectivi is the pre- 

 tence, and so well 

 does the papery 

 covering guard each 

 pod against the cgg- 

 layirg insects, that 

 1 cyiniot remember 

 evei" to have found 

 a aingle 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 conunon little 

 mouse - ear chick- 

 weed, which has no sucli protection, y</u will iind 

 in almost every capsule a small red grub busily 

 employed in eating the seeds which the plant liad 

 laid by for the continuance of its species. It is 

 tiuis a distinct advantage to the clovers in the 

 struggle for life that they have invented devices 



H 



NO. II.-I>ri('ll ( I.OVKK, ONK liKV 

 ll.(nVKR (11 Ol'KN 10 SHOW lUK 



I'l.n AM) ^i.i.Ds kii'KMm;. 



