428 LEGUMINOS^ 



probably the original form from which the cultivated crimson 

 clover has been derived. 



Crimson clover is tender and cannot be grown except in the 

 warmer parts of this country. In the south of England it is 

 grown generally as a catch-crop, the seed being sown on the 

 stubbles in autumn, and the produce fed off or cut for hay in 

 the following May and June. 



13. Yellow Suckling {Trifolium dubium Sibth.). — An annual 

 clover with ascending, or prostrate, wiry stems, sometimes a foot 

 or 18 inches long, and small yellow flowers. The flower-heads 

 are small, and formed of about a dozen flowers closely crowded 

 together. 



Trifolium filiforme L. is another species very nearly re- 

 sembling T. dubium Sibth., but with only five or six flowers in 

 each capitulum, and slender short stems not more than 5 or 6 

 inches long. Both the above are met with on dry, gravelly 

 pastures, and although their seeds are in commerce under the 

 name of yellow suckling clover, they are practically of little or 

 no value to the farmer as the produce from these species is very 

 scanty. 



14. Another annual species, namely, Hop-Clover, sometimes 

 termed Hop-Trefoil {Trifolium procumbens L.), is met with 

 on dry, gravelly pastures. It resembles the above two species 

 in general appearance, but the flower-heads look like miniature 

 hops and possess about forty flowers of a tawny, yellow colour. 



The three last species are often confused with black medick 

 {Medicago lupulina L.), which they resemble in habit as well 

 as in colour and size of flower-heads. Black medick can, how- 

 ever, be easily distinguished by its leaflets : these are obcordate 

 as in the clovers, but the midrib is prolonged into a sharp 

 (mucronate) point, while the yellow clover leaflets are without 

 this projection. 



Ex. 224. — Examine and compare the habit of growth in red, white, Alsike, 



