Definition Of Clover

According to Johnson's Encyclopaedia, clover or

trefoil is a plant of the genus Trifolium and the family Leguminosae.

The Standard Dictionary defines it as any one of several species of

plants of the genus Trifolium of the bean family Leguminosae. Viewed

from the standpoint of the American farmer it may be defined in the

collective sense as a family of plants leguminous in character, which

are unexcelled in furnishing forage and fodder to domestic animals, and

unequaled in the renovating influences which they exert upon land. The

term Trefoil is given because the leaves are divided into three

leaflets. It is also applied to plants not included in the genus, but

belonging to the same order.



The true clovers have their flowers collected into roundish or oblong

heads and in some instances into cone-shaped spikes. The flowers are

small and of several colors in the different varieties, as crimson,

scarlet, pink, blue, yellow and white, according to the variety, and

some are variously tinted. The stems are herbaceous and not twining. The

seeds are inclosed in pods or seed sacks, each of which contains one,

two and sometimes, but not often, three or four seeds. The plants have

tap roots, and in some varieties these go far down into the subsoil. The

roots are also in some varieties considerably branched.