The botanical history of trifolium alpestre, medium and pratense / [Adam Afzelius].

  • Adam Afzelius
Date:
[1790]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The botanical history of trifolium alpestre, medium and pratense / [Adam Afzelius]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    meafure a medium fpecies between the alpefre and pralenfe, I think 1 have reafon to prefer the oldeft name, and which was given by Linnaeus himfelf; though he afterwards changed it for alpejire, or rather confounded thefe two fpecies. Hence he fays, in the lecond edition of Species Plantarum, that Trfolium alpejire grows alfo in Sweden; whereas no other than the medium is found there. It appears as if Linnaeus had been led into this miftake by the ftipulae, which in both are fimiiar, and very different from thofe of Trifol. pratenfe, though in other refpects the alpefre and medium have few things in common. However, it feems as if fucceeding botanifts had generally regarded the Trifol. medium as the alpefre, and con- founded the fynonyms of both; whereas, neverthelefs, properly fpeaking, the medium has neither caulis ercdlus, nor folia lanceolata fer- rulata. But having in various authors obferved various notions of thefe and other terms, this no longer appears fingularto me. At all events it is certain that the Trifol. alpefre of all the Englilh bota- nifts, of Crantz, Scopoli, Pollich, Leers, Muller, Retzius, Lieblein, and perhaps alfo of Gmelin, Scholler, Mattufchka, Reichard, and Willdenow, is no other than the Trifol. medium ; for I am informed that this latter only, and not the former, grows in England and Scotland, as Dr. Stokes has before obferved ; and the fame I can fay of Sweden, Denmark, and Norway. Befides, the figure of Muller plainly evinces that his Trifol. alpefre is the medium. That Crantz, Scopoli, Pollich, Leers, and Lieblein have made the fame miftake, is evident from their deferiptions, as with regard to the two firft I have fhewn above ; and, as to the three latter authors, they compare their Trifolium with the pratenfe, faying that its Bern is for the moft part deprefled, or almofl lying on the ground (efpecially at the bafes), fomewhat angular, and furnifhed with joints; the leaves are feldom fpotted, and are on the under fide
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