978 TRIFOLIUM. [CLASS XVII. ORDER III. 
trod down by cattle is a means of increase, rather than of destruction; 
for then each joint forms an independent plant, and puts out its 
numerous stems and branches. It is a remarkable circumstance in 
the history of this plant, that it seems to have the power of preserving 
its seeds for an indefinite time; if a patch of any part of the moors of 
Yorkshire or Derbyshire, or elsewhere, which is covered over with 
the usual ling, ferns, cowberry, bilberry, mosses, &c., is pared, the 
sods burned, and the ashes spread over the soil, in a short time 
this portion of land becomes covered over with a crop of white trefoil 
in a state of great luxuriance. As a valuable pasture plant this 
seems early to have been noticed. Virgil says, giving directions about 
sheep— 
“ Tf milk be thy design, with plenteous hand 
Bring clover grass; and from the marshy land, 
Salt herbage for the fodd’ring rack provide, 
To fill their bags and swell the milky tide.” 
In former days the Shamrock, or Shamrog, the national badge of 
the Irish, appears to have been the leaves of the Oxalis acetosella, but 
in more modern times the leaves of the Clover have been its rival for 
this national honour. It was supposed formerly that Clover had a 
supernatural power, and that it was “ noisome to witches,” and in 
those times not only the peasants but the lords of the land wore the 
Clover leaf as a protection against such evil influence. 
“ 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.” 
A remnant of the former superstitions is still found among the 
peasantry, by their seeking with diligence a four leaved Clover, and 
when found it is considered a most favourable omen. 
12. TZ. procum'bens, Linn. (Fig. 1133.) Hop Trefoil. Smooth, 
heads lateral, pedunculated, rounded, becoming oblong; flowers 
numerous, densely crowded, at length deflexed and furrowed; calyx 
smooth, its mouth naked; leaves stalked; leaflets obcordate, the 
lateral ones sessile, the middle one stalked ; stipules half ovate. 
B. majus. Stem at first erect; heads large, a deep yellow; pedun- 
cles as long, or scarcely longer than the leaves.—Z. campestris, 
Schred.—T. agrarium, Gmel. 
£ minus. Stem mostly procumbent; heads smaller, a pale 
sulphur colour; peduncles often twice as long as the leaves.—Z’. 
procumbens, Schred. 
English Botany, t. 945.—English Flora, vol. iii. p. 309.—Hooker, 
British Flora, ed. 4. vol. i. p. 277.—Lindley, Synopsis, p. 81. 
Root slender, fibrous. Stem round, smooth, or slightly hairy, 
much branched, erect, and spreading, or procumbent, leafy, from six 
to twelve inches long. Leaves petiolated, leaflets ovate, or obcordate, 
