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TRIFOLIUM fcabrum^
Rough Trefoil.
DIADELPHIA Decandria.
G en. Char. Flowers more or lefs capitate. Pod
fcarcely longer than the calyx, never hurtling, but
falling off entire.
Spec. C har. Heads leffile, lateral, ovate. Calyx-teeth
unequal, permanent, rigid, at length recurved.
Syn. Trifolium fcabrum. Linn. Sp. PI. 1084. Sm.
F I Brit. 788. Iludf. 327. With. 648. Hull 163.
Relh. 282. Sibtb. 229. Abbot. 162. Curt. Lond.
fafc. 6. t. 48.'
T . flofculis albis, in glomeruli’s oblongis afperis, cau-
liculis proxime adnatis. Rail Syn. 329.
T P h IS fpecies of Trefoil, more curious to the botanift than
mterefting to the farmer, is only occafionally found on chalky
ground, or in dry fandy fields that lie over a calcareous foil,
where it flowers in May or June, and then foon dries up and
is blown about, fcattering its feeds againft the autumnal rains,
when they produce young plants which bloffom the following
fpring. Our fpecimens came from Kent. It is found alfo in
Norfolk. Mr. Crowe gathered it on Snettifham beach, and
in an old chalk-pit near Wells.
The root is fmall and annual. Stems feveral, proftrate,
rigid, often a little zigzag, round, hairy. Leaflets obovate or
obcordate, toothed, veiny, hairy. Stipulae lanceolate. Heads
axillary and terminal, folitary, fefiile, ovate, hairy, compofed
of many thick-fet, white, or pale blufh-coloured, flowers.
Calyx hairy, with a pale furrowed bafe, and green {harp lanceolate
teeth, ereft at firft, but foon fpreading, and at length recurved,
hard and rigid. Pod membranous, whitifh, enclofed
in the calyx. Seed yellowifh.