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{ 
822 
is perennial, unfastidious, and of easy culture; 
yet, though thoughtlessly extolled by some agri- 
cultural writers, it has the character far more of 
a weed than of an useful plant. It is seldom, 
and in but small quantities, eaten by cattle; it 
produces comparatively little seed; it exerts so 
powerful a lateral action by its creeping and 
spreading roots as to starve and smother almost 
every grass-plant in its vicinity ; and, while so 
unsocial and usurping as to take entire possession 
of spots of ground, and always exist in consider- 
able patches, it loves only such situations as very 
dry and almost barren fields, very dry banks, 
and the earth-clad sides and summits of old walls. 
It has often been mistaken for common red clo- 
ver, and, besides sharing with it the popular 
| name of cow-grass, it has a considerable resem- 
|| blance to it in general appearance; yet it may 
| be readily distinguished by the creeping habit of 
its roots, the rigid, zigzag character of its stems, 
and the unspottedness and comparative narrow- 
| ness and darkness of its leaves. 
The Alpine species, Zrifoliwm alpestre, grows 
wild in Hungary, Austria, and other parts of 
| continental Europe, and was introduced to Bri- 
| tain in 1789. It has sometimes been confounded 
| with the zigzag species; but is quite distinct in 
at once appearance, habit, and utility. Its root 
is perennial, and more fibrous yet less usurping 
than that of the zigzag species; its stem is erect, 
_ very hard, not much branched, and only about 
12 or 14 inches high; its foliage is comparatively 
scanty ; and its flower-heads are somewhat oval, 
and grow in pairs, and possess so comparatively 
| high a degree of beauty as to render it very wor- 
| thy of a place in the parterre. It has been re- 
commended for farm-cultivation by continental 
| writers; but it affords little promise of being 
| able to compete with any of our present culti- 
| vated kinds in either succulency or luxuriance. 
The strawberry - headed species, Trifolium 
fragyferum, grows wild on moist grounds in the 
seaboard districts of England. It is a perennial, 
and has a creeping and stoloniferous habit simi- 
lar to that of red clover; but it is readily distin- 
guished by the lowness of its growth, the infla- 
tion of its calyxes, the flesh or lightish-pink colour 
of its flowers, and the globose, strawberry-like 
appearance of its heads. Its root is fibrous; its 
|| stem is creeping; its leaflets are obcordate and 
| serrated ; its flower-stems seldom rise higher 
than about 3 or 4 inches from the ground; and 
its calyxes are inflated, membranaceous, coloured, 
| and downy, and have two of the teeth of each 
recurved. This species, though hitherto little 
| attended to, might probably be an advantageous 
ingredient in a mixture for permanent pasture 
on moist land. 
The yeliowish-white species, Zrifoliwm ochro- 
leucum, grows wild on dry pastures in some parts 
of England. Its root is perennial; its stem is 
| erect, and about a foot high; and its flowers are 
} 
| sulphur-coloured, bloom from May till July, and 
CLOVER. 
have so handsome an appearance as to entitle it 
to a place among ornamental plants. This spe- | 
cies does not seem to deserve extensive cultiva- 
tion; yet it might form a good ingredient in 
permanent pastures on dry and calcareous land. 
The Hungarian species, 7rifoliwm pannonicum, 
was introduced to Britain from Hungary in 1752, 
Its root is fibrous and perennial; its stem is 
strong, upright, and about 14 inches high; and 
its flowers have a white or whitish-yellow colour, 
and bloom in June and July. It has so much 
beauty as to be worthy of a place in the parterre; 
and, were it not too tender for general field cul- 
tivation, it probably possesses sufficient econo- 
mical value to deserve the attention of the 
farmer. 
The brown or villous-stalked species, 7rzfoliwm 
badium, is a native of the Pyrenees. Its root is 
fibrous and perennial; its stem is erect, and only 
about 6 or 8 inches high; its foliage is scanty; its | 
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ee 
flower-heads are numerous, have a bright shin- 
ing yellow colour, and bloom from June till Au- 
gust; and its seeds disperse themselves as soon 
as ripe, and cannot easily be obtained for artifi- 
cial sowing. This species is an ornament to the 
parterre, but seems to be of small agricultural | 
value.—All the species we have hitherto noticed, | 
excepting the biennial varieties of the red clover, 
are perennials; and all the species which remain | 
to be noticed are annuals. 
The crimson or flesh-coloured species, Trzfolium 
incarnatum, is a native of Italy, France, and Swit- 
zerland, and was introduced from the first of these 
countries to Britain toward the close of the 16th 
century. Its stem is strong, striated, branched, 
hairy, and about 12 or 14 inches high; its leaf- 
stalks are long and downy; its leaflets are cu- 
neiform, broadly-obtuse, crenate, and hairy; its 
flower-heads are oblong, obtuse, and about two 
inches in length; its flowers have a beautiful 
deep flesh-colour, and appear in July ; its calyxes 
are ten-ribbed, hairy, and a little compressed ; 
and its capsules are included in the tubes of the 
calyxes, and contain each a single, oval, compress- 
ed, glossy, yellowish-brown seed. It is largely cul- 
tivated in the south of France, and seems abun- 
dantly worthy of agricultural attention in Bri- 
tain ; and, while very productive of fodder in the 
field, it makes a fine figure in the flower-garden. 
In the south of France and in other continental 
| 
| 
districts, it is sown in the end of August or be- 
ginning of September, cut down in the following 
May, and immediately succeeded by a crop of 
potatoes or of Spanish wheat. Much stupid dis- 
credit has been thrown upon it in consequence 
of absurd experiments, which either assumed it 
to be a perennial or treated it as a spring-sown 
annual; and doubts have been raised against its 
adaptations to Scotland, in consequence of its 
refusing to flourish there under the same treat- 
ment as in the south of England. 
Moliner’s species, Trifolium Molinert, is a na- 
tive of the south of Europe, and was introduced | 
