342 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
chiefly interested. It grows rapidly and forms excellent pasture, 
but its bulk is not sufficient to make it profitable to mow it for 
hay. Sheep thrive well upon it, and there are but few meadows 
or moors where it is not to be found. So common is this little 
plant in almost every plot of ground in our country, that it is 
as familiar to us as any other Avild plant. The more pretentious, 
larger, and showy species of clo\ r er, do not appear except under 
cultivation, and seem to oive their existence more to the agency 
and care of man than does our modest little friend, the White 
Clover. Withering says, “ On the soil of our moors in the 
north of England being turned up for the first time and lime 
applied, wliite clover appears in abundance ; a circumstance in 
no Avay satisfactorily accounted for, but Avliich is known to take 
place in Avastes both in Britain and North America.” In such 
situations the seed may have lain dormant for a length of time, 
until stimulated into vegetation by the admission of moisture 
and heat. 
The common plants of a country are almost universally 
associated Avith its legends and poetry. The Irish names for 
the Trifolium repens are Shamrock — Shamrog, or Seamur-oge; 
and some botanists claim for it priority as the national em- 
blem of Ireland. Many and warm have been the disputes 
to determine which of the three-leaved plants is the veritable 
shamrock. Some contend for the Oxalis Acetosella — wood- 
sorrel; Avliile others maintain that the white clover is the 
favoured plant of St. Patrick, who, when preaching the Gospel 
in earliest times to the benighted inhabitants of the Eme- 
rald Isle, chose to illustrate the great doctrine of the Trinity 
by the simple instance of a triune nature in this Avell-knoAvn 
and beautiful leaf. Whether he plucked for the purpose the 
bright-green leaf of the Avood-sorrel, or the familiar herbage of 
the white clover, cannot iioav be well ascertained. We are 
inclined to think that the national symbol is equally preserved 
in either plant ; and in Ireland at this day, the trifolium is 
necessarily more frequently adopted than the oxalis by those 
who keep up national customs. 
It Avould seem to be the tendency of nations to dedicate to 
them patron saint some plant Avith Avhich they are familiar at 
that season of the year when the feast in his honour is cele- 
brated. Thus, the Welsh have given the leek to St. DaA r id, as 
almost the only green thing to be found in Wales on St. David’s 
Day. The Scotch have adopted the thistle for St. AnclreAv, Avhose 
celebration falls in the autumn, Avhen thistles are abundant. 
Our oavu champion, St. George, seems by his warlike tem- 
perament to have discouraged anything like the sentimental 
dedication of a flower to his memory. This idea rather dis- 
countenances the notion that Trifolium repens is the veritable 
