Cornell Nature-Study Leaflets: Being a selection, with revision, from the teachers' leaflets, home nature-study lessons, junior naturalist monthlies and other publications from the College of Agriculture, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., 1896-1904New York State College of Agriculture
History
Cornell Nature-Study Leaflets: Being a selection, with revision, from the teachers' leaflets, home nature-study lessons, junior naturalist monthlies and other publications from the College of Agriculture, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., 1896-1904
New York State College of Agriculture
Natural history; Nature study
_Buffalo Clover (Fig. 247). (T. reflexum.)_--This is sometimes taken for
a variety of the red clover, but only a glance is needed to distinguish
it. While the head is perhaps an inch in diameter the flowerets are not
directed upward and set close as in the red clover, but each floweret is
on a little stalk, and is bent abruptly backward. The flowers are not
pink. The standard is red, while the wings and keel are nearly white.
The leaves are blunt at the tip. It grows in meadows in western New York
and westward. This species is native to this country.
_Alsike Clover. (T. hybridum.)_--This is a perennial and grows in low
meadows and waste places from Nova Scotia to Idaho. It was introduced
from Europe. It is especially valuable in wet meadows, where the red
clover would be drowned. The blossoms of the alsike look like those of
the white clover except that they are a little larger and are pink; but
the long branching mostly upright stems are very different in habit from
the creeping stems of the white clover; the blossoms are very fragrant.
[Illustration: _Fig. 247. Three clovers, respectively, Buffalo, Yellow,
and Rabbit-foot clover._]
_The White Clover. (T. repens.)_--This beautiful little clover, whose
leaves make a rug for our feet in every possible place, is well known to
us all. It is the clover best beloved by honey-bees, and the person who
does not know the distinct flavor of white clover honey has lost
something out of life. While in hard soil the white clover lasts only
two or three years, on rich, moist lands it is a true perennial. While
it was probably a native in the northern part of America, yet it is
truly cosmopolitan and may be found in almost all regions of the
temperate zones. Very likely the common stock of it is an introduction
from Europe. By many this is considered to be the original shamrock.
_The Yellow, or Hop Clover (Fig. 247). (T. agrarium.)_--This friendly
little plant, filling waste places with brilliant green leaves and small
yellow flower-heads, is not considered a clover by those who are not
observant. But if the flowerets in the small, dense heads are examined,
they will be seen to resemble very closely those of the other clovers.
The stems are many-branched and often grow a foot or more in height. The
flowers are numerous, and on fading turn brown, and resemble the fruit
of a pigmy hop vine, whence the name. Its leaves are much more pointed
than those of the medics, with which it might be confused because of its
yellow flowers.
_Low Hop Clover, or Hop Trefoil. (T. procumbens.)_--This resembles the
above species, except that it is smaller and also more spreading, and
the stems and leaves are more downy.
_The Least Hop Clover. (T. dubium.)_--This may be readily distinguished
from the above species by the fact that its yellow flowerets occur from
three to ten in a head. This is said by some to be the true shamrock,
although the white clover is also called the shamrock.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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