ON PLANTS IN RELATION TO ANIMALS. 
771 
Of these, the first is the common white Dutch clover of 
the farm, being, however, common as a native plant in almost 
every situation and soil, though probably more attached to 
the lighter than the heavier lands. It is much grown by 
the farmer in those shifting pastures which he terms seeds. 
We have got a great bulk of produce on some very sandy 
fields on our farm, where we advise it being sown by itself, 
but where the soil is a little more calcareous, we always use 
some of the varieties of the Lolium perenne, called by the 
seedsmen L perenne sempervirens or 44 Devon ever Grass.” 
This is a good mixture when it is intended to keep it laid 
down for over two years. It is relished by cattle both as green 
herbage or as hay, but it is recommended that in early 
summer sheep should he put on it somewhat cautiously, as 
it may otherwise bring about that tympanic state known as 
blasting, or if not that effect, it often produces diarrhoea, a 
fact not to be wondered at when we consider that many of 
the family possess purgative properties. Sometimes it is 
profitable to eat down the first crop as early as possible, 
and take seed from the second growth. 
This clover is endeared to the Irish as the plant which 
is traditionally asserted to have been used by St. Patrick to 
explain the nature of the Trinity. This notion, with others 
connected with the folk lore of the white clover, has been 
so admirably described by Mrs. Lankester, that, long as it is, 
we cannot forbear to quote it in its entirety, premising, 
however, that the suddenness with which the plant is said 
to spring up after the use of lime, does not appear to us 
an evidence of the seed having lain dormant for some 
time. When we see it suddenly arise in a meadow, as 
it does sometimes, in a very luxuriant form, we take it 
that this is due to the amelioration caused by manure, 
lime, or draining encouraging the growth of plants there 
before, but so starved as to be scarcely noticed by the com¬ 
mon observer. 
So, again, the fact of a patch of this clover very quickly 
taking possession of a new surface is due to the quickness of 
its growth and its spread by two methods, namely, the 
ordinary one of seed and its creeping habit, its scions being 
capable of rooting at every joint. 
We are not prone to believe in the assertions as to the 
longevity of the fecundity of seeds, as we have little proof 
of its truth from actual trial and experiments, but we do 
know that where they have been observed to so suddenly 
abound, we have better evidence whence they came than to 
suppose that seeds dug from many feet deep in some work- 
