In a subsequent chapter I will describe a very fine
variety, which sometimes occurs in the wild state and may easily be
isolated and cultivated. It is an ordinary red clover with five leaflets
instead of three, and with this number varying between three and seven,
instead of being nearly wholly stable as in the common form. It produces
from time to time pinnate leaves, [236] very few indeed, and only
rarely, but then often two or three or even more on the same individual.
Intermediate stages are not wanting, but are of no consequence here. The
pinnate leaves obviously constitute a reversion to some prototype, to
some ancestor with ordinary papilionaceous leaves. They give proof of
the presence of the common character of the family, concealed here in a
latent state. Any other explanation of this curious anomaly would
evidently be artificial. On the other hand nothing is really known about
the ancestors of clover, and the whole conception rests only on the
prevailing views of the systematic relationships in this family. But, as
I have already said, further proof must be left for a subsequent
occasion.
Many instances, noted in our former lectures, could be quoted here. The
systematic distribution of rayed and rayless species and varieties among
the daisy-group of the composites affords a long series of examples.
Pages:
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240