Spontaneous trefoil?

On the lower left of HS 242 f. 110, one of Lawson's collections, is a label covering what appears to be a plant specimen. It's quite small, and the bit that appears most clearly looks like a trifoliate something-or-other. A Desmodium, perhaps? Who knows. Weakley includes the common name "trefoil" in eight different plant entries - anything with leaves clumped in threes can merit it.

The intriguing thing is the label, which is evocative. (At least, my attempt at deciphering it is evocative.) It appears to read:

"Jan. 27th 1710. Spontaneous [?] trefoil of Carolina growing on the fork of Neus River and in other places having shed [?] from flower like drops of blood a sweet herbage[??] all spontaneous trefoils are more hairy here than in England."

I may have gotten that completely wrong.

But what if I'm right, and it does refer to "spontaneous trefoil"? Did people believe plants could grow spontaneously? Is trefoil a particular weed, common in England?

I found this account in The Farmer's Magazine, London 1851 (MDCCCLI - I hate Roman numerals!) describing a case of trefoil growing in fields sown with clover. Because the seed produced pure clover in most fields, the farmers concluded that the trefoil must have grown spontaneously. The author refuses to believe this, noting that seeds could lie dormant for years until conditions were right for them to germinate, but it is intriguing, no?

Then there's this, from the Annals of Agriculture, and Other Useful Arts, published London 1804: "Gypsum has also another very singular property, that of encouraging the growth of spontaneous trefoil on spots where seed had never been sown, particularly of the yellow and white trefoil. In Alsace I have seen many instances of this singular circumstance."

And this, on the adulteration of forage plants, another author recognizing that yellow trefoil seeds can last a long time.

What is trefoil? I'm not going to attempt to identify this specimen, but I can speculate more on my musings. This UK lawn weed site identifies Trifolium dubium as the noxious weed Lesser Trefoil - it's a Eurasian native, and is introduced to our area, so maybe not that. Plant Guide.org identifies it as Medicago lupulina, also introduced to our area. Weakley includes the common name "trefoil" in eight different plant entries - anything with leaves clumped in threes can merit it.

Sadly, our photographs do not allow us to see through that unfortunate label to further examine the plant specimen. So the mystery will have to stop here for now.