Purple Clover—Trifolium pratense, Linnæus.
Clover was not cultivated in ancient times, although the plant was doubtless known to nearly all the peoples of Europe and of temperate Western Asia. Its use was first introduced into Flanders in the sixteenth century, perhaps even earlier, and, according to Schwerz, the Protestants expelled by the Spaniards carried it into Germany, where they established themselves under the protection of the Elector Palatine. It was also from Flanders that the English received it in 1633, through the influence of Weston, Earl of Portland, then Lord Chancellor.[470]
Trifolium pratense is wild throughout Europe, in Algeria,[471] on the mountains of Anatolia, in Armenia, and in Turkestan,[472] in Siberia towards the Altai Mountains,[473] and in Kashmir and Garwhall.[474]
The species existed, therefore, in Asia, in the land of the Aryan nations; but no Sanskrit name is known, whence it may be inferred that it was not cultivated.
Crimson or Italian Clover—Trifolium incarnatum, Linnæus.
An annual plant grown for fodder, whose cultivation, says Vilmorin, long confined to a few of the southern departments, becomes every day more common in France.[475] De Candolle, at the beginning of the present century, had only seen it in the department of Ariège.[476] It has existed for about sixty years in the neighbourhood of Geneva. Targioni does not think that it is of ancient date in Italy,[477] and the trivial name trafoglio strengthens his opinion.
The Catalan fé, fench,[478] and, in the patois of the south of France,[479] farradje (Roussillon), farratage (Languedoc), feroutgé (Gascony), whence the French name farouch, have, on the other hand, an original character, which indicates an ancient cultivation round the Pyrenees. The term which is sometimes used, “clover of Roussillon,” also shows this.
The wild plant exists in Galicia, in Biscaya, and Catalonia,[480] but not in the Balearic Isles;[481] it is found in Sardinia[482] and in the province of Algiers.[483] It appears in several localities in France, Italy, and Dalmatia, in the valley of the Danube and Macedonia, but in many cases it is not known whether it may not have strayed from neighbouring cultivation. A singular locality in which it appears to be indigenous, according to English authors, is on the coast of Cornwall, near the Lizard. In this place, according to Bentham, it is the pale yellow variety, which is truly wild on the Continent, while the crimson variety is only naturalized in England from cultivation.[484] I do not know to what degree this remark of Bentham’s as to the wild nature of the sole variety of a yellow colour (var. Molinerii, Seringe) is confirmed in all the countries where the species grows. It is the only one indicated by Moris in Sardinia, and in Dalmatia by Viviani,[485] in the localities which appear natural (in pascuis collinis, in montanis, in herbidis). The authors of the Bon Jardinier[486] affirm with Bentham that Trifolium Molinerii is wild in the north of France, that with crimson flowers being introduced from the south; and while they admit the absence of a good specific distinction, they note that in cultivation the variety Molinerii is of slower growth, often biennial instead of annual.
Alexandrine or Egyptian Clover—Trifolium Alexandrinum, Linnæus.
This species is extensively cultivated in Egypt as fodder. Its Arab name is bersym or berzun.[487] There is nothing to show that it has been long in use; the name does not occur in Hebrew and Armenian botanical works. The species is not wild in Egypt, but it is certainly wild in Syria and Asia Minor.[488]