The name clover probably originated in the Latin clava-clubs, in reference to the fancied resemblance between the three-pronged club of Hercules and the clover leaf. The clubs of our playing-cards and the trèfle (trefoil) of the French are probably an imitation of the same leaf.
The nonesuch, Medicago lupulina, with downy, procumbent stems, and flowers which grow in short spikes, is nearly allied to the hop clover. In its reputed superiority as fodder its English name is said to have originated. Dr. Prior says that for many years this plant has been recognized in Ireland as the true shamrock.
Dyer’s Green-weed. Wood-waxen. New England Whin.
Genista tinctoria. Pulse Family (p. [16]).
A shrubby plant from one to two feet high. Leaves.—Lance-shaped. Flowers.—Papilionaceous, yellow, growing in spiked racemes.
This is another foreigner which has established itself in Eastern New York and Massachusetts, where it covers the barren hill-sides with its yellow flowers in early summer. It is a common English plant, formerly valued for the yellow dye which it yielded. It is an undesirable intruder in pasture-lands, as it gives a bitter taste to the milk of cows which feed upon it.
Yellow Sweet Clover. Yellow Melilot.
Melilotus officinalis. Pulse Family (p. [16]).
Two to four feet high. Stem.—Upright. Leaves.—Divided into three toothed leaflets. Flowers.—Papilionaceous, yellow, growing in spike-like racemes.
This plant is often found blossoming along the roadsides in early summer. It was formerly called in England “king’s-clover,” because, as Parkinson writes, “the yellowe flowers doe crown the top of the stalkes.” The leaves become fragrant in drying.
Rattlebox.
Crotalaria sagittalis. Pulse Family (p. [16]).
Stem.—Hairy, three to six inches high. Leaves.—Undivided, oval or lance-shaped. Flowers.—Papilionaceous, yellow, but few in a cluster. Pod.—Inflated, many-seeded, blackish.