WHITE AND GREENISH WILD FLOWERS 
to investigate these hoary top-knots when you first find 
them, you are likely to fall into the same error. Most 
people fail to identify this species as a member of the 
Clover tribe at sight, notwithstanding there is no get- 
ting away from its trifoliate leaf. The generic name, 
Trifolium, is derived from the Latin ives, three, and 
folium, a leaf, and alludes to the three-parted com- 
pound leaf, which is characteristic of this family. 
The name Clover is thought to have been derived 
from the Latin clava, meanmg clubs, in connection 
with the mythical three-headed club of the mighty 
Hercules, which the Clover leaf is supposed to resemble. 
The so-called clubs on playing cards are believed to 
have originated from the Clover leaf. The Rabbit- 
foot Clover is an immigrant from Europe. The 
name comes from the fancied resemblance of the 
furry flower, to that popular token of good luck, 
the foot of a rabbit. The annual, slender, erect 
stalk is much branched and covered with minute silky 
hairs. It grows from six to eighteen inches in 
height and every branching joint of stalk and stem 
is sheathed with a stipule having a pair of long, curv- 
ing, needle-like points. The three small, thin, vel+ 
vety leaflets forming the compound leaf flare from the 
tip of a short, slender stem. They are long and very 
narrow, lance-shaped, the broader part toward the 
rather blunt three-pointed apex, and they taper into 
short stems at the base. The length is less than an 
inch. ‘The midrib is noticeable the entire length, and 
finally forms the centre one of the three tiny tips at the 
264 
