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| | The Irish Shamrock, ©Jane Lyons |
 | | Trifolium repens and that Trifolium minus, considered at one time to be a separate species is really a form of Trifolium repens, that is to say the same plant, with some very minor differences, that do not accord it the distinction of a different species. |
 | | While conceding that in the present day the neater Trifolium minus is equally in favour with Trifolium repens as our national badge, some may be disposed to argue that the true Shamrock of earlier times, before modern culture had spread abroad a taste for the elegant and the delicate, was, nevertheless, the coarser Trifolium repens. |
 | | The fact that a decided majority of the specimens collected by me from the Irish-speaking districts of our island, where old national usages may be assumed to have the greatest tenacity of existence, belonged to this latter species, might be taken as lending a certain support to this view. |
| www.from-ireland.net /history/nathist/shamrock.htm (1837 words) |
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