Giant Clover

Smithsonian botanists last week declared themselves astonished. In their hands they held some giant clover leaves sent by J. W. Thompson, a Seattle plant collector. He had found them growing on Washington sage brush slopes. He had never seen their like, nor had the Smithsonian men.

Each plant was nearly two feet high and bore flowers almost two inches in diameter. Most of the 300 species of clover have triple leaves, like the shamrock. There are "lucky" four-leaf freaks, and rare five- and seven-leaf varieties. The Thompson specimens have seven leaves normally, which grow on long, eight-inch stems.

The astonishing aspect of the giant Thompson clover is that it should have been discovered so tardily in the U. S., a thoroughly botanized nation. It may be, opined Smithsonian Botanist Conrad Vernon Morton, "one of the last conspicuous new plants to be discovered in the U. S.''

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