206 



THE PEAFLOWER TRIBE. 



15. Subterranean Clover. Trifolium subterraneum, Linn. 



(Fig. 255.) 



(Eng. Bot. t. 1048.) 



A small, prostrate annual, more or less 

 clothed with long spreading hairs ; the 

 stems usually short and tufted, but oc- 

 casionally lengthened out to 6 or 8 inches. 

 Stipules broad. Leaflets obovate, on 

 long leafstalks. Flowers white or pale- 

 pink, long in proportion to the plant, 2 

 or 3 together on axillary peduncles, 

 which lengthen considerably after flower- 

 ing, and turn down almost into the 

 the ground ; the fruiting calyx then 

 turns back upon the peduncle, and is 

 usually surrounded by short thick fibres, 

 each with 5 spreading, subulate teeth, 

 showing that they are, in fact, unde- 

 veloped calyxes. 



In dry, gravelly or sandy pastures, 



common in southern Europe to the 



Caucasus, and up western France to the Channel. Abundant in many 



parts of southern and central England, but not in the north, nor in 



Scotland, nor as yet recorded from Ireland. Fl. spring and early summer. 



Fig. 255. 



10. Strawberry Clover. Trifolium fragiferum, Linn. 



(Fig. 256.) 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 1050, not good.) 



The perennial stock, creeping stems, 

 foliage, and peduncles are those of the 

 white C, but the flowers are closely ses- 

 sile in the head, surrrounded by an invo- 

 lucre of lobed bracts as long as the calyx- 

 tubes, and the calyx, after flowering, 

 becomes much inflated, thin and reticu- 

 late, with short fine teeth ; the flower- 

 head is thin, very compact, half an inch 

 or more in diameter, and often assumes 

 a pink tint, so as to have been compared 

 to a strawberry. Corolla small and 

 red. 

 Fig. 256. In rather dry meadows and pastures, 





