THE WHITE CLOVER— continued. 
usually obcordate, finely toothed at the margin, and generally variegated, either with 
a pale whitish crescentic, transverse stripe, or less commonly with dark purple or 
blackish stains at their bases, or with a reddish under surface. The leaf is glabrous 
with the exception of a marginal fringe of long hairs and some glandular hairs 
secreting wax on the under surface. Even heavy rain fails to wet the leaf, the water 
hanging only to the marginal hairs and the midrib on the under surface. “ Sleep ” 
movements, somewhat similar to those of the Melilot, take place at night : the 
lateral leaflets bend down from the horizontal to a vertical position, while the middle 
leaflet rises, and so twists its stalk as to become inverted. 
The flower-heads are borne erect on angular peduncles above the leaves, and 
the flowers are white or tinged with pink, or, in the case of a Scilly Island variety, 
with a deep lilac ; whilst after fertilisation they uniformly wither to a light brown 
and fall one after the other into a downward, drooping position. Darwin states that 
they are incapable of being pollinated with their own pollen ; and certainly the 
abundant honey, the consequent insect visits, and the readiness with which crossing is 
effected, render self-pollination quite unnecessary. 
Various popular names refer to the abundance of honey in the flowers, such as 
Suckies and White Honeysuckle. It is significant that Honeystalks is said to be still in 
use in Warwickshire, as it probably was when Shakespeare wrote of 
“ Words more sweet and yet more dangerous 
Than baits to fish or honeystalks to sheep 
When as the one is wounded with the bait, 
The other rotted with delicious feed '* — 
a passage explained in Nares’s “ Glossary ” by the statement that “ it is common for 
cattle to overcharge themselves with clover and die.” In the North, the plant is 
sometimes known as Lamb’s Sucklings. 
The standard petal is marked with fine honey-guides ; but, except for the 
closer adhesion between petals and filaments, the pollination-mechanism is practically 
identical with that of the Melilot. The little, smooth, oval, two- to four-seeded 
pod remains enclosed within the persistent withered corolla. 
Though the plant is, in all probability, truly indigenous, an improved 
cultivated variety, to which alone the name Dutch Clover would seem to belong, may 
have been introduced at some time from Holland. The species forms.unquestionably 
a most valuable fodder plant, especially on dry, thin soils. 
