The rhododendrons growing in Washington, 

 or among the redwoods of California, or 

 clothing the slopes of the Alleghenies with 

 impenetrable thickets and in early summer 

 glorifying them with bloom, are worth going 

 far to see. 



At its best, and rarely, the shrub attains a 

 height of 35 feet. Its form, with spreading 

 branches, twisting and interlocking, calls to 

 mind the Greek meaning of its name, "rose 

 tree." In less favorable locations the plant is 

 sometimes less than five feet high. The wood 

 is one of the strongest and hardest that grows 

 and weighs 39 pounds to the cubic foot. 



The rhododendron has no such clever trick 

 of showering its pollen upon insect visitors as 

 the mountain laurel, but, like the laurel, it pro- 

 tects itself by a sticky substance below the 

 flower from ants and crawling insects which 

 do not transfer pollen. The bee and other in- 

 sect friends of the rhododendron find its nec- 

 tar very gratifying, but the honey they make 

 from it is said to be poisonous. 



To the deeper pink, rather purplish rhodo- 

 dendron of the Carolinas, European gardeners 

 pay the homage of careful cultivation, as they 

 do also to some varieties native to Asia. 



Americans might fittingly revive England's 

 "Maying" custom and set aside an early sum- 

 mer day for pilgrimages to our mountains 

 where the laurel and rhododendron bloom, in 

 order properly to appreciate these perfect gifts 

 of Nature. 



RED CLOVER 



(Trifolium pratense L.) 



Member of the Pulse family, with the wild 

 sensitive plant, the partridge pea, the wild pea- 

 nut, the vetches, the tick trefoil, and the blue 

 lupine as its cousins, the red clover, which the 

 legislature of the Green Mountain State has 

 decreed shall be accorded the honor of stand- 

 ing at the head of the Vermont floral proces- 

 sion, finds itself at home in all temperate 

 America (see page 516). 



The clover is an extraordinary seed-bearer. 

 Darwin counted those of a large number of 

 heads and found an average of 27 seeds per 

 blossom. But when he kept the insects away 

 not a single seed was set. 



The clover blossom is preeminently the bum- 

 blebee's flower. When Australia first under- 

 took to add this legume to her list of forage 

 crops, as fine-looking fields of clover as one 

 could imagine appeared in due time. But 

 somehow the heads did not set seed and it 

 seemed that failure was to follow the experi- 

 ment. On looking around for a possible cause 

 of this failure, it was found that the clover's 

 best friend, the bumblebee, had not been im- 

 ported along with the seed. As soon as this 

 faithful servant was brought in and given time 

 to establish itself, there were lively, hopeful 

 days in the antipodean clover fields and no 

 more failures of the crop to provide for future 

 sowings. 



The butterfly, too, long of tongue, can sip 

 the nectar of these blossoms ; but the light- 

 weight insects with short tongues need not 

 apply. The clover hides its sweets beneath a 



reddish lock that can be opened only by long 

 tongues or heavy weights. 



The child who has not plucked the tiny 

 florets of the clover blossom and tasted their 

 nectar is to be placed in the same category as 

 the girl who has not taken a daisy and plucked 

 the petals to the tune of "He loves me, he loves 

 me not," for neither has known the simple 

 joys of the field. 



When James Whitcomb Riley asked what the 

 lily and all the rest of the flowers were to a 

 man who in babyhood knew the sweet clover 

 blossom, it was not that he loved the lily less, 

 but that he loved the clover more. 



Who that has seen a herd of fine cows, sleek 

 and fat and trim, in a field of red clover fails 

 to understand the force of the phrase "Living 

 in clover" as a description of worldly affluence? 

 But even the cows have no advantage of the 

 bumblebee and the butterfly when it comes to 

 the joy the clover field gives, for neither ox- 

 eye daisies, black-eyed susans, goldenrods, nor 

 iron-weeds can afford such rich pastures for 

 these insects as the 1 well-cultivated meadows 

 of clover offer them. 



For ages the clover has figured in the mys- 

 ticism of the Caucasian races. The four- 

 leaved clover is regarded as a harbinger of 

 good luck when one finds it growing, although 

 it is probably more an evidence of the finder's 

 powers of observation and, therefore, of abil- 

 ity to get on in the world. In Europe the 

 peasants declare that a dream about clover 

 foretells a happy marriage, long life, and pros- 

 perity. There is another superstition to the 

 effect that if one carries a fcur-leaved clover 

 at Christmas time it will bring the ability to 

 see witches and sprites. Still another fancy is 

 expressed in the old couplet to the effect that 

 finding an even ash leaf or a four-leaved clover 

 is sure to bring a sight of the finder's sweet- 

 heart before the day is over. 



Clover is thought by the herb doctor to have 

 some medicinal properties. For instance, it is 

 claimed that a syrup made from its blossoms 

 is a cure for whooping-cough ; and many a 

 country child knows the joy of red clover tea 

 at impromptu parties. 



The clover is not a native American plant. 

 It was brought here from Europe, where it is 

 widely cultivated; and, again, it is only a set- 

 tler in Europe, for it originally migrated there, 

 like so many other plants of economic value, 

 from Asia. However, it has a right to be 

 called a blue-stocking among our flowers, for 

 it is one of those favored individuals of the 

 plant world that enrich the soil as they grow. 

 Man has been long ages learning how to ex- 

 tract nitrogen, the most expensive of all fer- 

 tilizing elements, from the air; but the clover 

 learned that secret untold centuries ago, and 

 instead of levying heavy tribute on the nitro- 

 gen supply of the ground, it draws its supplies 

 from the air, uses what it can, and presents 

 the remainder to the land with its compliments. 



It joins the cow-pea, the soy-bean, the locust 

 tree, and other legumes in being a great sup- 

 porter of soil fertility. Compare the sod under 

 the next locust tree you see with that under 

 an oak, and you will realize why the clover 

 and its cousins are allies of the progressive 

 farmer. 



517 



