TRIFOLIUM. 



whom alfo we are indebted for the diarafter of the legume 

 having but two feeds, which we have never had an opportu- 

 nity of examining. Stem upright, twelve or eighteen inches 

 high, hollow, ftriated, fmooth, leafy, with three or four up- 

 right branches, under each of which the main ftem divari- 

 cates at an obtufe angle. Leaves on very long ftalks, with 

 a pair of large, ovate, fomewhat deltoid, pale, membranous, 

 veiny, long, and taper-pointed Jlipulas : leaflets all equally 

 nearly feffile, an inch long, broadly elliptical, rather ovate 

 than obovate, emarginate, finely ferrated ; the lower ones 

 partly entire. Flowers white, on hairy partial ftalks, com- 

 pofing numerous denfe globular heads, hardly an inch in dia- 

 meter, whofe common ftalks are but of a moderate length, 

 ftout and angular. Such is the genuine 7 '. hybridum of Linnaeus, 

 whofe fynonyms above quoted cannot be difputed, though 

 others have been confounded herewith. This is one of the 

 fpecies well worthy of agricultural experiment, though hi- 

 therto unnoticed in England. Its crop muft be very con- 

 liderable. 



Linnaeus calls the^em " afcending ;" yet the fpecimen 

 in his herbarium is perfedlly ereft, though zig-xag in the 

 upper part. Ehrhart, in his Phytophylachtm, n. 26, gives, 

 under the name of 7". hybridum, Upfal fpcciraena whofe ^cm 

 is decumbent, or partly afcending, hollow, but not zig-zag. 

 The leaflets are narrower, as well as much more ftiarpTy and 

 copioufly ferrated, than in the Linnajan fpecimen, and the 

 jlower-Jlalks are longer. This appears to be the Trifoliaftrum 

 fupinum corymbiferum annuum album majus, folio longiore 

 obtufo, fihqua incurva lata comprefta ac difperma ; Mich. 

 Gen. 28. t. 28. f. 5. The form of the leaflets perhaps is 

 variable, as thofe of neither this, nor of the true hybridum 

 above defcribed, do really anfwer well to Micheli's figures. 

 This decumbent or afcending plant, doubtlefs known to 

 Linnaeus, muft have been comprehended in his idea of 

 T. hybridum, of which it is probably a variety. Ehrhait 

 has named it, according to a mode of his own, Bubroma, 

 indicating its value as food for oxen. The tubular _^fm 

 clearly diftinguilhes thefe two plants, whether fpecies or 

 varieties, from all to which they are near akin, efpecially 

 from the following, and T. repens. 



23. T. Vadlantii. Traihng White Clover, or Trefoil. 

 Poirct in Lamarck Di(ft. v. 8. 4. Prodr. Fl. Graec. n. 1789. 

 (T. n. 758 ; Hall. Enum. Rar. 41. Trifoliaftrum annuum 

 corymbiferum album et procumbens, foho cordato, fubtils 

 atro-virente fplendente, filiqua tetrafperma, infern^ falcatim 

 difcriminata ; Mich. Gen. 27. t. 25. f. 6. Melilotus pa- 

 riiienfis humifufus, fohis ferratis glabris ; Vaill. Parif. t. 22. 

 f. 1.) — Heads globofe. Flowers ftalked. Legumes four- 

 feeded. Leaflets elliptic-obovate, finely ferrated. Stems 

 branched, decumbent, folid, many-flowered. — Found in 

 meadows and paftures about Florence very abundantly. 

 Micheli. About Paris. Vaillant. In the meadows of 

 Switzerland. Holier, Lachenal. In the Morea. Sihth. 

 Some dried fpecimens of this do not, at firft fight, look 

 much unlike the Linnjean one of T. hybridum, though 

 fmaller, and the general fize of every part is much lefs. 

 The leaflets vary greatly, and are fometimes wedge-fliaped. 

 The decifive charailer of the Jle7n being not tubular, but 

 filled with fpongy pith, and always decumbent, though 

 not creeping, will ever clearly diftinguifli this from every 

 variety of the laft, to which we may add Micheh's mark of 

 the four feeds, doubtlefs correft ; but fome of them are 

 liable to prove abortive, fo that only one ripe feed caii 

 fometimes be found. The prefent fpecies promifes far lefs 

 advantage to the cultivator than the hybridum or the repens, 

 and therefore ought carefully to be diftinguiflied from both. 



24. T. repens. Common VVliite Trefoil, or Dutcfi 

 Clover. Linn. Sp. PI. 1080. Fl. Suec. 259. WiUd. 

 n. 19. Fl. Brit. n. 3, excluding the fyn. of Vaillant, 

 Prodr. Fl. Grsec n. 1790. Engl. Bot. t. 1769. Purfh 

 n. 2. Curt. Lond. fafc. 3. t. 46. Mart. Ruft. t. 34. Fl. 

 Dan. t. 990. Riv. Tetrap. Irr. t. 13. f. 2. (T. pratenfe ; 

 Ger. Em. 1 1 By, the figure only. Trifohaftrum pratenfe co- j, 

 rymbiferum majus repens, n. i — 9 ; Mich. Gen. 26. t. 25. 

 f. 1 , 3 and 4. ) — Heads nearly globofe. Flowers ftalked. 

 Legumes four-feeded. Leaflets inverfely heart -fliaped, or 

 roundifti. Stems creeping, folid, many-flowered. — Very 

 common in meadows and paftures throughout Europe, from 

 Sweden to Greece, and all the iflands of the Archipelago, 

 flowering from May to September, and varying excefllvely 

 with regard to luxuriance, as well as in the pale and whitifli, 

 or dark and purplifti, marks of its leaves. Mr. Purfli fays 

 it is found in fields, paftures, and cleared lands on the moun-' 

 tains of North America, making its appearance wherever 

 lands are cleared of timber, in the moft remote parts of 

 the country ; from 60 to 100 miles diftant from any place 

 where it grew naturally. So it fprings up in recently 

 cleared ground in England, being one of the moft univerfal 

 plants of the temperate zone. It forms an excellent bottom 

 for paftures, and js particularly valuable for fodder iti the 

 dry autumnal months. Mr. Sinclair thinks it lefs eligible 

 in the fpring, except mixed with grafles, being apt to 

 caufe in flieep the difeafe termed red-water, efpecially if the 

 weather be cold and moift. The roots are fibrous and 

 perennial. Stems many, quite proftrate, branched near their '' 

 origin, creeping to a great extent, with radicles from moft 

 of the joints ; they are round, fmooth, full of pith. Leaves 

 very variable in fize, and fomewhat in (hape, ftiarply toothed, 

 on long ftalks, Stipulas tubular. Flotverjlalks much 

 longer than the leaves, axillary, fohtary, moftly ereft, an- 

 gular, folid. Heads rather deprefled. Flowers white ; 

 brown in decay. Legume oblong, fmooth, with three ov 

 four feeds. In ofier-holts, and fuch rich moift places, 

 the Jlem is more upright and luxuriant ; but being folid, a 

 cannot be confounded with T. hybridum, a fpecies never \ 

 yet difcovered in England, any more than T. Vaillantii. 

 Linnaeus blames Micheli for making a great number of 

 imaginary fpecies out of this common T- repens, but he 

 himfelf, in fome degree, has erred, on the other hand, in 

 confounding two or three very diftinft fpecies together. 

 How far we are correft in citing Micheli as above, and 

 whether fome other things, diftinguiftied by him, do not 

 likewife come under the repens, could be determined only 

 by a moft careful fcrutiny of his own fpecimens, and per- 

 haps the cultivation of the plants themfelves. 



25. T. ambiguum. Doubtful Pale Trefoil or Clover. 

 Bieberft. Taur. v. 2. 108 ; excluding the fyn. of Haller, 

 n. 368, not 138. (See T. hybridum, n. 22.) — " Heads 

 with ftalked flowers. Legumes with one or two feeds. 

 Calyx-teeth nearly equal. Standard lanceolate. Leaflets 

 ovate, bluntifli, finely ferrated. Stem creeping." — Frequent 

 in the meadows of Tauria and Caucafus, as well as about 

 the Don and the Wolga, flowering in fummer. Larger 

 and more robuft than the hybridum and repens, equally 

 .creeping and forming tufts. Flowering^^nu a fpan, rarely 

 a foot, in length. Stipulas lanceolate, withering. Leaflets 

 the fize of T. alpeftre, but broader and blunter, yet not 

 emarginate, ftriated in like manner with very prominent 

 fibs, ending in extremely fliarp and crowded marginal teeth. 

 Heads denfe, twice the fize of the two fpecies juft men- 

 tioned, as are alfo the flowers, which are bent downwards 

 as they fade. Calyx ftriated, with awl-fhaped divaricated 



teeth, 



