Science and Practice in Farm Cultivation

by James Buckman

CHARACTERS OF CLOVERS.

1. Trifolium pratense. ——— From a Natural Pasture.	2. Trifolium pratense. ——— From Messrs. Sulton’s Trial Grounds.	3. Trifolium pratense, perenne. ——— From Messrs. Sulton’s Trial Grounds.
Heads of flowers dense, proceeding from two leaves by a very short stem, of from 50 to 80 sessile florets of a more or less lilac or pink colour.	Heads of flowers dense, with from 70 to 120 sessile florets.	Heads of flowers somewhat lax, with from 50 to 100 florets, proceeding from leaves by an evident stem.
Calyx of 5 fine ciliated teeth—the lower of which is the longest—about half the length of the flower.	Calyx, much as 1.
Corolla, Standard with a long straight tube.	Corolla, much as 1.
Leaves trifoliate, more or less hairy; leaflets ovate, either broadly lanceolate, or notched at the apex; all having a more or less triangular white marking in their centre.	Leaves of 3 leaflets, more or less ovate, with the white triangular marking 3 times the size of 1, but less hairy.	Leaves of 3 ovate leaflets, with less distinct triangular spot than 2, clothed with silky hairs.
Stem solid, channelled or angular, purple.	Stem sometimes fistular, more or less channelled or ribbed, mostly free from hairs, purple upwards.	Stem variable, sometimes fistular mostly quite round and smooth sometimes; but not generally hairy.
Root descending, but considerably branched.	Root tapering with lateral branches.	Root as 2.
Whole plant more or less clothed with silky hairs.	Whole plant, smooth, compared with 1, still more or less hairy.	Whole plant, remarkable for its hairy leaves and generally smooth round stems.
Height from 5 to 8 inches.	Height 16 inches.	Height 18 inches.

Now, although the study of the characters, as here laid down with the specimens in our hand, may render it tolerably easy to distinguish the three forms here described, yet it must be confessed that whether we examine a series of the wilder plants from different positions, or different samples of the cultivated broad-leaved clovers, we shall find great variations; the principal of these will be discussed in another chapter: we may here, then, for the present leave this difficult subject of how to distinguish cow-grass and broad-leaved or red clover, with the observation that the common red clover is uniformly in flower two or three weeks before the other.

2. Trifolium medium (see [Plate])—Zigzag Trefoil—gets its English name from the peculiar bends in its stem, which being at alternate sides, make up the zigzag outline. The stems are rounded—not channelled,—mostly of a purple colour, and clothed with short hairs. The leaves are smooth, with elliptical—not emarginate—leaflets, sometimes, but seldom, with the white lunulate spot. The calyx is smooth. The heads of flowers are solitary, on very short footstalks; they are of a bright pinkish red hue, and not of the lilac colour of the common clover.

Trifolium medium.Zigzag Trefoil.

In its wild state the zigzag clover will be found in districts remarkable for the absence of lime, such as the sandstones. In the sandy deposits accompanying the coal in Wales, as also in Staffordshire, this is the prevailing form of clover. Hence, then, this species seemed to recommend itself for sandy lands, in which the common clover does not so well succeed; and we conceive that, as a consequence, it was brought into cultivation for this capability of “holding on” to such soils, which, if they will not grow the other kind, is considered clover sick. We have reason to think that the T. medium and T. pratense are not distinct species, but that the difference in their usual habitats has determined their difference in form, and we think that the T. pratense perenne of the seedsman is a form intermediate between the two: if so the position of the three may be expressed as follows:—

Trifolium pratense.Trifolium medium.
Trifolium pratense perenne.