PAPILIONACE^S. 



207 



common in Europe and central and Russian Asia, penetrating far into 

 Scandinavia. Frequent in England, Ireland, and southern Scotland. 

 Fl>. summer and autumn. 



17. White Clover. Trifolium repens, Linn. (Fig. 257.) 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 1769. Dutch Clover.) 



A glabrous or slightly hairy perennial, 

 the stems creeping and rooting at the 

 nodes. Stipules small. Leaflets ob- 

 ovate, distinctly toothed, and usually 

 bearing a mark in the centre, which has 

 been compared to a horseshoe, the leaf- 

 stalks often very long. Peduncles ax- 

 illary, long and erect, bearing a globu- 

 lar head, or rather umbel, of white 

 flowers, often tinged with pink ; the pe- 

 dicels, after flowering, more or less 

 elongated and recurved. Calyx-teeth 

 scarcely so long as the tube, the lowest 

 one usually the shortest. Pod containing 

 2 to 4 seeds, usually protruding from 

 the calyx, but enclosed in the withered 

 corolla. 



In meadows and pastures, throughout 

 Europe and Russian Asia, from the Me- 

 diterranean to the Arctic Circle, and 

 having been long cultivated, and spread- 

 ing rapidly in genial soils, it is now common in most temperate regions 

 of the globe. Abundant in Britain. In Ireland believed to be of com- 

 paratively recent introduction, although it is now taken as the national 

 emblem in substitution of the Wood-sorrel Oxalis, which was the 

 original shamrock. Fl. the whole season. 



Fig. 257. 



18. Hop Clover. Trifolium agrarium, Linn. (Fig. 258.) 



(T. procumhens, Eng. Bot. t. 945.) 



A slender annual, much branched at the base, glabrous or slightly 

 downy, procumbent or nearly erect, 6 inches to a foot long, or rather 

 more. Stipules broad and pointed. Leaflets obovate or obcordate, 

 the central one at some distance from the others. Flower-heads loosely 

 globular or ovoid, on rather long axillary peduncles, containing 30 to 



