have leaves formed of three leaflets--they are trefoils--but the leaves
are otherwise different.

Those of the Red Clover grow on stems branching from the flower stem,
and sometimes on the flower stem itself. Both leaves and stems are
hairy, and on the leaves there is generally a white mark, something the
shape of a horseshoe.

The leaves of the White Clover grow, like the flower, at the top of the
stem--a single leaf on each stem. The under sides of the leaves are
smooth and glossy. The leaves of the Crimson Clover grow on the flower
stems like those of the Red Clover; but the leaflets are broader and
rounder than the Red Clover leaflets. The Crimson Clover is an annual,
while the others are perennials.

All these clovers are good food for the farmer's animals or stock. The
Red Clover is, perhaps, the most useful. Bees, however, prefer the White
Clover, for they can more easily get at its nectar.

Sheep are exceedingly fond of Clover, but Mr. Hammond is always careful
not to turn them into a field of Clover when they are very hungry,
or to let them stray in by accident. If they got in they would eat it
ravenously, and many would very likely die. Too hearty a meal of Clover
has the same effect on them as a great quantity of new bread would have
on you or me.

We have spent so much time this morning looking at the clovers that we
have only a minute or two to stand at the gate of a field of beans. The
blossoms are pretty--white with dark spots--and they are very fragrant.
A field of beans in flower gives us one of the most delightful of all
country scents.

CHAPTER VI

IN "ASHMEAD"

There are many other flowers besides the Clover in Ashmead to-day, and
this afternoon we will look at some that grow among the grass. One of
these you may perhaps call a weed, yet it is one of the most beautiful
wild flowers in England. I mean the golden Dandelion.

On a lawn or in a garden bed it would certainly be a weed, and a very
troublesome one. Here among the grass we need only think of it as a very
lovely flower. See what a rich golden yellow the little florets of the
blossom are. Plants like the Dandelion, in which the blossom is composed
of a number of florets, are called "composite" plants.

If we examine the plant closely we shall find that each stalk which
bears a blossom, and each long deeply indented leaf, grows, like the
flower-stem and leaf of the Primrose, from a very short underground
stem. It is from th