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Our country is so much richer in butterflies than Europe, it is
scarcely surprising that Professor Robertson found thirteen
Lepidoptera out of twenty insect visitors to this clover in
Illinois, whereas Muller caught only eight butterflies on it out
of a list of thirty-nine visitors in Germany. The fritillaries
and the sulphurs are always seen about the clover fields among
many others, and the "dusky wings" and the caterpillar of several
species feeds almost exclusively on this plant.
"To live in clover," from the insect's point of view at least,
may well mean a life of luxury and affluence. Most peasants in
Europe will tell you that a dream about the flower foretells not
only a happy marriage, but long life and prosperity. For ages the
clover has been counted a mystic plant, and all sorts of good and
bad luck were said to attend the finding of variations of its
leaves which had more than the common number of leaflets. At
evening these leaflets fold downward, the side ones like two
hands clasped in prayer, the end one bowed over them.


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