1877.] 
AMERICAN AGRIC UI/PURIST. 
301 
The Ornamental Species of Clover. 
Those whose knowledge of clovers is limited to 
the common White and Red Clover of our fields, 
will, perhaps, be surprised to know that over a 
hundred species have been cultivated, and that a 
large share of these have been, first and last, intro- 
red color; the heads are either solitary or produced 
in pairs, and are about 4 inches long. Each calyx 
has one of its five teeth much prolonged, and very 
hairy, and after the flowers have fallen, give to the 
spike a soft downy appearance, much like that of 
the little Rabbit’s-foot or Pussy-Clover, so common 
in some places by the road-side, and in dry, sterile 
soils. The engraving shows the upper portion of 
Honeysuckles, and others are examples of this sec-* 
tion. The second section (formerly Xylosteum), in¬ 
cludes both climbing and erect species, but the 
flowers are in pairs in the axils of the leaves ; the 
Japan or Chinese Honeysuckles, of which there are 
several varieties with different names ( L. flexuosa, 
L. brachypoda , etc.), are examples of the climbing- 
species of this section, while of the erect species, 
THE GARDEN RED CLOVER .—(Trifolium rubens.) 
Tartarian honevsuckle. —{Lonicera Tartarica, var.) 
duced into European gardens as ornamental plants. 
If, indeed, our common Red Clover ( Trifolium 
pratense) could only be raised with difficulty and 
under glass, no doubt our ideas of its beauty would 
be greatly modified. Not many years'ago, the Crim¬ 
son and the Orange Clovers (T. incarnatum and T. 
aurantiacum) were popular garden annuals, both 
brilliant and showy, but of late they seem to have 
disappeared from the seedsmens’ catalogues. A 
variety of the common White Clover {T. repens, 
var. pwpureum), is cultivated in European gardens 
under the name of Four-leaved Shamrock. This, 
instead of the three leaflets of the ordinary form, 
has four or five leaflets, each of which has a broad 
purplish spot on its upper surface ; sometimes the 
whole leaflet is purple, but most generally there is 
a more or less wide marginal border of green. Sev¬ 
eral other perennial species are popular in Euro¬ 
pean gardens, among these is Trifolium rubens, 
which we tried this year for the first time, and find 
a decidedly interesting and somewhat showy plant. 
The trouble with the so-called perennial clovers is 
their short duration ; especially if allowed to bear* 
seed, the plant becomes exhausted, and behaves 
more like a biennial than a perennial; the duration 
of this remains to be tested. It is a rather robust 
species, growing 12 to 18 inches high, having leaves 
with three large thick, oval-oblong leaflets, tt up¬ 
per being sessile. The heads of flowers are elongat¬ 
ed, cylindrical, tapering above ; the individual flow¬ 
ers large for the genus, and of a carmine or purplish 
the plant somewhat reduced in size. In Europe, 
the plant remains a long while in flower, but we 
have yet to see how it endures our hot summers. 
The botanical name, Trifolium rubens, would trans¬ 
late into Red Clover, but that name being in general 
use for another species, we will get over the diffi¬ 
culty by calling this one the Garden Red Clover. 
The Tartarian Honeysuckle. 
In making up a list of desirable ornamental 
shrubs, however few in number, we should be 
obliged to include the Tartarian Honeysuckle, 
though we are not prepared to agree with a recent 
writer who states, that if restricted to only one sin¬ 
gle shrub, this would be his choice. There are 
some shrubs, that step at once into the front rank, 
from which position no after comers can depose 
them ; this is the case with the plant under notice, 
which, though introduced over a century ago, has 
held its place in the esteem of all lovers of good 
plants, and it will no doubt retain it for a century 
to come. The Honeysuckle genus, Lonicera, is di¬ 
vided into two very distinct sections, the plants in 
which some botanists have considered as sufficient¬ 
ly unlike to be regarded as two different genera. 
The first section, (genus Caprifolium of some), in¬ 
cludes climbing plants, with the flowers in heads or 
whorls at the ends of the branches; our well- 
known Trumpet Honeysuckle, the Belgian or Dutch 
the most familiar is the Tartarian, Lonicera Tartari¬ 
ca. As its name would indicate, this species was- 
first known as a native of Tartary, but it is common 
in Russia proper and in Siberia. It is usually from 
4 to 6 feet high, but old and well-grown specimens- 
reach 10 feet, and if allowed room for development, 
will be as broad as, if not broader than tall. It is a 
plant that should not be put into a shrubbery, 
where it will be crowded by others, but allowed 
sufficient room, where it will present a regular 
ovoid outline, and be clothed with foliage from the 
very base. The small ovate-heart-shaped leaves are 
opposite, and in the axil of each is a short flower- 
stalk bearing the flowers, which project beyond the 
leaves. The engraving, of a small twig of the 
natural size, gives the shape of the leaves and flow¬ 
ers. At first the berries of the two flowers are quite 
distinct, but as they ripen they grow together at 
the base. In the ordinary form of the shrub, the 
flowers are pinkish or rose-colored, and the berries 
of a dark-red, but there are several varieties, which 
are usually kept in the nurseries. The most com¬ 
mon variety is var. albiflora (or alba,) in which the 
flowers and the fruit are both white ; another, var. 
lutea, has yellow leaves and berries. By far the 
finest of the Tartarian Honeysuckles is one we re¬ 
ceived several years ago from Ellwanger & Barry 
as var. grandifolia, a name which we do not find in 
any of the books, and which, from the description,, 
we take to be the same as the French works have 
as var. tricolor. At all events it is a most charming 
L 
