ON PLANTS IN RELATION TO ANIMALS. 
773 
sella (wood-sorrel), while others maintain that the white 
clover was the favoured plant of St. Patrick, who, when he 
was preaching the Gospel in the earliest times to the be¬ 
nighted inhabitants of the Emerald Isle, chose to illustrate the 
great doctrine of the Trinity by the simple instance of a triune 
nature in this well-known and beautiful leaf. We incline, as 
we have expressed before when writing of the Oxalis, to be¬ 
lieve that it was this plant, and not the white clover, which 
was the original trefoil of Ireland; for our little plant does not 
arrive at perfection until considerably after St. PatrickVday. 
The national emblem and spirit of the institution is, how¬ 
ever, equally preserved in either plant, and we may take the 
term f shamrock’ as applicable to all trefoils or three- 
parted-leaved plants. The f Irish Hudibras* says : 
‘ Within a wood near to this plaee, 
There grows a hunch of three-leaved grass, 
Called by the boglanders sham rogues, 
A present for the queen of shoges (spirits).’ 
<f In all ages a sort of mystic reverence has surrounded the 
notion of a Trinity, and this idea seems embodied by the 
imaginative and poetical Irish in the triple leaflet. When¬ 
ever this sacred leaf is found to depart from its usual forms 
to produce four leaflets its mystic power is said to be greatly 
enhanced, and all sorts of spells are supposed to be worked 
with its enchantments. The old song—■ 
‘ I’ll seek a four-leaved shamrock in all the fairy dells,’ 
tells of the wonders to be accomplished by it when 
found. 
“ The white clover forms a very interesting study itself as 
a type of the family to which it belongs. No class of plants 
affords such evident and interesting examples of the law of 
morphology as do the Leguminosae. 
“ In the white clover we frequently meet with cases in 
which parts of the flower exhibit a tendency to return to 
their leafy origin; the pod frequently changes into a small 
leaf, whilst the stamens, petals, and sepals, all exhibit the 
same tendency, the pedicels of the flowers at the same time 
elongating. 
“ \y e have seen many specimens where the whole head of 
flowers on a stalk of clover has undergone this transforma¬ 
tion, presenting the most singular appearance possible, with 
the green leaves looking as if quite out of their accustomed 
place, and, consequently, very odd and uncomfortable. In 
passing through a field of clover it is worth while to look for 
such monstrosities, and they are by no means uncommon. 
53 
L1II. 
