Lesson CLXVII

Sweet Clover

Leading thought—This beneficent plant grows in soil too poor for other plants to thrive in. It brings nitrogen and air into the soil, and thus makes it fertile so that other plants soon find in its vicinity nourishment for growth.

Method—Plants of the sweet clover with their roots may be brought to the schoolroom for study. The children should observe sweet clover in the field; its method of inflorescence, and the insects which visit it, should be noted.

Observations—1. What first makes you aware that you are near sweet clover? On what kinds of soil, and in what localities, does sweet clover abound?

2. Do you know how sweet clover growing in poor soils and waste places acts as a pioneer for other plants?

3. Dig up a sweet clover plant, and see how far its stems go into the soil.

4. How high does the plant grow? What is the color of its foliage?

5. Compare one of the leaves with the leaf of a red clover, and describe the likeness and the difference. Note especially the edges of the upper and the lower leaves, and also the stipules.

6. Describe the way the sweet clover blossoms. Do the lower or upper flowers open first? How does the flower stem look before it begins to blossom? What happens to it after the blossoming begins? How long will it continue to blossom?

7. Take a blossom and compare it with that of a sweet pea. Can you see the banner? The wings? The keel? Can you see if the stamens are united into two sets? Can you see the pistil? Note the shape of the calyx.

8. How many flowers are in blossom at a time? Does it make a mass of white to attract insects? In what other way does it attract insects? What insects do you find visiting it?

9. How do the ripened pods look?

“The blooming wilds His gardens are; some cheering
Earth’s ugliest waste has felt that flowers bequeath,
And all the winds o’er summer hills careering
Sound softer for the sweetness that they breathe.”

—Theron Brown.