858 DIADELPHIA. DECANDRIA. TriRolium/ 
oval, terminated by an awn, scored with red veins, slightly woolly. Head 
single, usually roundish, situate between a pair of nearly sessile leaves, 
and in part surrounded by their stipulae, smaller, and of a deeper purple 
than those of T. medium. Calyx short, slightly woolly, generally scored 
with red veins; teeth bristle-shaped, woolly, usually tinged with purple* 
Blossom reddish purple, sometimes white; of one petal; tube long; 
standard longer than the wings and keel, blunt, notched at the end; 
wings blunt. St. Stems always bowed upwards at the base. Branches 
and leaves upright, not wide apart. Calyx lower tooth far shorter than 
the tube of the blossom. Afzel. 
Purple Trefoil. Red Clover. Marl Grass. Honeysuckle Tre¬ 
foil. (Welsh: Meillionen goch. E.) Meadows and pastures. 
P. B. May—Sept.* 
Var. 2. Smaller. Leaves inversely heart-shaped, the upper generally oppo¬ 
site. Spike bare. Ray. 
Ray 13. 1. 
English Botanists have considered this as a smaller var. of T.pratense , the 
stipules being awned and the teeth of the calyx nearly equal, as in that 
species; but it differs in other respects very materially, the leaves being 
opposite, the leafits small, short, inversely heart-shaped, the fruit-stalk 
very long and destitute of floral-leaves. Afzel. Linn. Tr. i. 227. 
Between Peckham and Camberwell. Hudson. 
Var. 3. Cultivated. Larger and more upright than var. 1. Leaves some¬ 
what paler and thinner. Flowers somewhat paler. Does not propagate 
itself by seed, or continue so long in the ground. Ray. 
FI. Ban. 989. 
Stems strong, almost smooth, furrowed, twice as tall as those of var. 1. 
Heads large, oval, hairy. Petals more expanding, and styles shorter than 
those of var. 1. Mill. 
* The heads are used in Sweden to dye woollen green. With alum they give a light, 
with copperas a dark green. (This is one of the oldest and most useful plants in cultiva¬ 
tion, yielding an abundant and nutritive crop; but it soon exhausts the ground. Mr. 
Salisbury remarks that the seeds of Clover have the property of remaining long in the 
ground after it has appeared to be exhausted, when ashes laid on will by their stimulating 
effects, cause the seeds to vegetate. Hence some persons have affirmed that (soap) ashes, 
when scattered over land, will produce Clover, (vid. T. repens.) Though 
“ Nature should provide 
Green grass and fatt’ning Clover for their food,” 
Cattle should be turned into heavy crops of Clover at first very cautiously, or it may soon 
prove fatal, especially if wet with dew or rain. When intended for immediate use, it should 
be mown in the middle of the day. Clover seeds of all kinds are necessary ingredients in 
laying down pasture lands.—Bees extract much honey from the sweet scented blossoms. 
The young plants are often injured by the same little jumping beetles, Hnltiea , that attack 
turnips. See Obs. on the Clover Weevil in Linn. Tr. vol. vi.,>« A'small weevil, also Apion 
Jlnvifemoratum, feeds upon the seed of Purple Clover, and in most seasons does the crop 
considerable damage. But this mischief is moderated by the penetrating Ichneumon , from 
whose research the insect, concealed even within the legume of the plant, is not secure. 
Indeed, so wisely and mercifully is the balance adjusted throughout the whole economy 
of nature, that, though the impending evil be calculated to excite serious apprehension, 
we may rest assured that He who rides on the tempest and directs the storm, also works 
by means imperceptibly minute for the general welfare of created being. E.) 
