399 
4. GALIUM TRIFIDUM L. Sp. Pl. 105. 1753. 
Fl. Dan. p/. 48. Wahl. Fl. Lap. 47. 1812. Roem, & Schul. 
Syst. Ledeb. FI. Ross. Big. Fi, Bowt,“ea: 2; 0. "16245 BG, 
Prod. 4: 597. 1830. 
G. trifidum pusillum Gray, Man. ed. 5, 209. 1867. 
Perennial from slender rootstocks, very slender and weak, as- 
cending, 40 cm. or less long, much branched and intertangled ; 
stem sharply 4-angled, rough; branches commonly in twos; leaves 
in fours, linear-spatulate, 5-13 mm. long, obtuse, cuneate at the 
base, I-nerved, dark-green and dull on both surfaces, scarcely 
papillose, margins and midrib retrorse-scabrous; flowers solitary 
on lateral‘or terminal pedicels which are capillary, scabrous and 
arcuate at the apex, much longer than the leaves, commonly two 
at each node or three terminal ; corolla very small, white, % mm. 
long, trifid, lobes broadly oval, very obtuse; fruit glabrous; en- 
dosperm spherical and hollow, annular in cross-section. 
Sphagnous bogs and cold swamps. Maine to southern New 
York, Ohio, Nebraska, Colorado and northward. 
Maine: Fernald, no. 412 (1895); Parlin (1885). - 
Vermont: Grout and Eggleston (1894). 
Central New York: Dudley and others; Britton (1886). 
Ohio: Werner (1891). 
Nebraska: Rydberg, no. 1418 (1893). 
Michigan: Britton (1886). 
Colorado: Wolf, no. 16-17 (1873). 
GALIUM TRIFIDUM SUBBIFLORUM N.. var. 
Stems less scabrous than in the type, somewhat stouter ; leaves 
larger, very unequal (8-10 mm. by 2 mm.), flaccid and nearly 
smooth ; pedicels capillary and as long as the leaves, or sometimes 
rather stout; rarely two or even three-flowered, nearly glabrous. 
This variety approaches G. Claytoni and G. Brandeegei. The 
specimens examined are nearly all much discolored as if the leaves 
might be slightly fleshy. 
Arizona and California to Oregon and the Saskatchewan. 
Type in Herb Cornell Univ. Colorado, Hall and Harbour, 
no. 230 (1862). 
Arizona: Palmer. 
Utah: Watson, no. 485 (1869). 
California: Kellogg (1865); Bolander, no. 5348 (1866) ; Parish. 
no. 1505 (1882); Eastwood (1894). 
