Trans, v. i. pp. 221 & 240. — Davies’ Welsh Bot. p. H. — Purt. Midi. FI. v. i. p. 
343. — llelh. IT. Cant. (3rd ed. ) p. 300. — Sinel. Holt. Gram. Wob. p. 221. with a 
plate. — Hook. FI. Scot. p. 218. — Grev. l*'l. Edin. p. 160. — FI. Devon, pp. 124 and 
176. — Jolinst. FI. of Bcnv. v. i. p. 103. — Winch’s FI. of Nortliumb. and Durli. p. 
49.— Walker’s FI. of Oxf. p. 213. — Don’s Gen. Syst. of Gard. & Bot. v. ii. p. 183. — 
Bab. FI. Bath. p. 12. — Mack. Catal. of Plants of Irel. p. 67. ; FI. Ilibcrn. p. 77. — 
Trifolium pratense purpureum, Bay’s Syn. p. 328. 
Localities. — In meadows and pastures, especially on a limestone or gravelly soil. 
Perennial. — Flowers from May to September. 
Root rather woody, and somewhat tap-shaped, branching at the 
crown, ash-coloured, its fibres often bearing minute fleshy granula- 
tions. Stems ascending, a foot or more high, slightly branched, 
unequally leafy, roundish ; clothed, in the upper part, with close 
fine hairs. Leaves alternate, on longish petioles, ternate; leaflets 
of the lower leaves roundish, those of the upper elliptical, more or 
less acute, entire, nearly smooth, dark green, usually with a whitish 
angular mark in the centre. Stipulas membranous, egg-shaped, 
broad, nerved, smooth, each terminating in a short bristle-shaped 
point. Heads terminal, solitary, egg-shaped, obtuse, dense, situated 
between a pair of nearly sessile leaves, and in part surrounded by 
their stipulae ; flowers in each head very numerous, sweet-scented, 
of a light purple colour, rarely white. Calyx short, slightly hairy, 
generally scored with red veins ; segments awl-shaped, the 4 upper 
ones usually equal ; the 5th, or lowermost one, the longest. Corolla 
of 1 petal, tube long, standard much longer than the wings and 
keel. Legume roundish, small, and thin. Seeds kidney-shaped, 
compressed, yellowish. 
The white-flowered variety of this species is rare ; I have seen 
it in a pasture about four miles from Oxford, on the right hand 
side of the new road to Ensham ; and also in a field on the left hand 
side of the road going from Rugby to Brownsover, Warwickshire, a 
few yards from the new Aqueduct over the road. 
Trifolium pratense is well known to the farmer as one of the 
most valuable artificial grasses, as they are called, for fodder or 
hay, as it yields the largest crop of all the other sorts. For parti- 
culars relating to its history, mode of culture, uses, & c. see Miller's 
Gard. Diet, by Martyn ; The Transactions of the Linnean So- 
ciety, v. i. pp. 221 & 240., and v. vi. pp. 142 & 147.; Don's Gen. 
Syst. of Gard. and Bot. v. ii. p. 183 — 185. ; and Baxter's Library 
of Agricultural and Horticultural Knowledge, p. 173. 
The heads are used in Sweden to dye wool green ; with alum they give a light, 
with copperas a dark green. 
We are informed by Dr. Joiinston, in his excellent Flora of Berwick-upon- 
Tweed, that “ in the days when there were witches in the land, the leaf of the 
Trefoil was worn by knight and by peasant, as a potent charm against their 
wiles ; and we can even yet trace this belief of its magic virtue in some not un- 
observed customs. Hast thou never sought, and deemed thyself fortunate in 
finding a four-leaved clover 1 
‘ But woe to the wight who meets the green knight, 
Except on his faulchion arm, 
Spell proof he bear, like the brave St. Clair, 
The holy Trefoil's charm ; 
For then shall fly his gifted eye, 
Delusions false and dim ; 
And each unbless’d shade shall stand pourtray’d. 
In ghostly form and limb.’ ” 
Sphtxriu Trifolii, and Polythrincia Trifolii, are parasitic on the leaves of 
this and some other species ot Trifolium, about Oxford. 
