J20 THE ASSOCIATIONS OF FLOWERS 
soms by country people; a tree dear to the child at school, 
because its pendent clusters unfold just before the Mid- 
summer vacation, and whose opening buds have erewhile 
made the young hearts within ns beat with joy and hope. 
The field-bean (Vicia), which, when in full flower, by its 
sweet scent reminds us, perhaps more than any of our 
native odours can do, of the fragrant breath of Eastern 
gales. The winds as they play above the bean-field, bear 
to us at times a sweetness almost overpowering, and far 
stronger than that breathed from the bed of roses. These, 
with the lupins and many more, belong to the leguminous 
family. 
But let us walk away into the meadows, and there we 
may find these plants in abundance. Blue and lilac vetch- 
es creep in winged clusters over the hedges, and the 
yellow flower of the melilot springs up beneath them. 
This flower, which wms formerly called golden saxifrage, 
yields, when dried, a delightful fragrance, but is scentless 
while growing. It bloom.s in June, and is about two or 
three feet high. Its scent is far more powerful in Switzer- 
land; and the plant is much used in the Swiss dairy to 
prevent, by its powerful odour, the decay of the cheese. 
The little pea-shaped lady’s-slipper springs among the 
grass ; and the rich clovers, from the minute yellow trefoil 
to the large purple and white kinds, mingle their fra- 
grance. The clovers, or trefoils, as they are called, be- 
cause their leaves are all composed of three leaflets, are 
very valuable on pasture lands. They were formerly 
called three-leaved grasses; and village people often term 
them the husbandman’s barometer. When the atmos- 
phere is damp, their leaflets close together ; and no sooner 
are the dews of evening upon the clover-field, than the 
leaflets fold up; as Hurdis writes: 
¥\^hat time the sun has from the west withdrawn 
The various hues that graced his cloudy fall, — 
^ the recent leaf 
Of clover ’gins to sleep, and white with dew, 
Closes its tender triple-fingered palm. 
Till morning dawn afresh.” 
An the clusters which form the head of the clover are 
