WHITE OR DUTCH CLOVER 425 



The flowers are a deeper purple colour and not so densely 

 crowded together in the capitulum ; the latter, moreover, is 

 stalked, the first pair of opposite leaves being a short distance 

 below the base of the flower-head instead of close to it as in red 

 clover. 



Seed of this species is not met with in commerce, and the 

 plant is of little agricultural value. 



10. Alsike or Swedish Clover: Hybrid Clover {Trifolium 

 hybridum L.). — A perennial clover introduced into England 

 from Sweden in 1834. 



It is a distinct species and not a hybrid as its name seems to 

 imply. 



The stems are smooth, of upright habit, from i to 3 feet high. 



The free part of the stipules of the leaves are drawn out to a 

 long tapering point (2, Fig. 128), and have pale green veins. 



The flower heads, which are round, arise on peduncles 

 springing from the axils of leaves on the main stems. 



The flowers are pale pink or white, resembling those of white 

 clover ; the fruit is an indehiscent pod, containing from one to 

 three small seeds. 



Alsike, of which there are no specially cultivated varieties, is 

 a more permanent plant than red clover, often lasting five or six 

 years on suitable soils. It is also much more hardy and better 

 suited to stiff damp soils, where other species of clover would 

 scarcely thrive at all. 



Pure sowings are rarely made, but it is of great value in 

 mixtures of grasses and clovers on all stiff moist soils, although 

 the yield is not so good as that of the red species. 



11. White or Dutch Clover {Trifolium repens L.), (Fig. 131). 

 — A well-known perennial clover, common in all good pastures 

 throughout the country. It differs in habit of growth from red 

 clover and alsike. Like these species it has a well formed tap 

 root, but the stems, which are smooth, creep over the surface or 

 just beneath the soil, and from their nodes adventitious roots 



