of the purple and white meadow trefoils.

The word clover is a corruption of the Latin _clava_ a club; and
the "clubs" on our playing cards are representations of clover
leaves; whilst in France the same black suit is called _trefle_.

A conventional trefoil is figured on our coins, both Irish and
English, this plant being the National Badge of Ireland. Its charm
has been ever supposed there as an unfailing protection against
evil influences, as is attested by the spray in the workman's cap,
and in the bosom of the cotter's wife.

The clover trefoil is in some measure a sensitive plant; "its
leaves," said Pliny, "do start up as if afraid of an assault when
tempestuous weather is at hand."

[112] The phrase, "living in clover," alludes to cattle being put to
feed in rich pasturage.

A sworn foe to the purple clover cultivated by farmers, is the
Dodder (_Cuscuta trifolii_), a destructive vegetable parasite which
strangles the plants in a crafty fashion, and which goes by the
name of "hellweed," or "devil's guts." It lies in ambush like a
pigmy field octopus, with deadly suckers for draining the sap of its
victims. These it mats together in its wiry, sinuous coils, and
chokes relentlessly by the acre. Nevertheless, the petty garotter--
like a toad, "ugly and venomous, wears yet a precious jewel in its
head." "If boiled," says Hill, "with a little ginger, the dodder in
decoction works briskly as a purge. Also, the thievish herb, when
bruised and applied externally to scrofulous tumours, is an
excellent remedy."

The word "dodder" signifies the plural of "dodd," a bunch of
threads. The parasite is sometimes called "Red tangle" and "Lady's
laces."

Its botanical name _Cuscuta_ comes from the Greek _Kassuo_--to
sew together. If the piece of land infested with it is closely mown
(and the cut material carried away unshaken), being next covered
with deal saw-dust, on which a ten per cent. solution of sulphate of
iron is freely poured, then by combining with the tannin contained
in the stems of the Dodder, this will serve to kill the parasite
without doing any injury to the clover or lucerne. Although a
parasite the plant springs every year from seed. It is a remedy for
swooning or fainting fits.

The Sweet Clover (or yellow Melilot), when prepared as a tincture
(H.), with spirit of wine, and given as a medicine in material
doses, causes, in sensitive persons, a severe headache, sometimes
with a determination of [113]