119. RUBIACEAE 225 



5. Spermacoce L. 



S. glabra Michx. Smooth Buttonweed. Muddy shores, river 

 banks, and wet ground in woods in the southern and western coun- 

 ties, extending northw. to Peoria Co. July-Aug. 



6. Galium L. — Bedstraw 



1. Ovary and fruit uncinate-hispid, or at least puberulent. 



2. Leaves cuspidate, 1 -veined, 6-8 in each whorl. 



3. Leaves narrowly oblanceolate to linear; stems long, weak, 

 reclining, retrorsely hispidulous; plants annual. 



4. Leaves 2-8 mm long; fruits 4-5 mm in diameter, the hairs 

 pustulate at base; peduncles subtended by a whorl of 

 leaf-like bracts, or cymes 1-3 flowered in the upper axils; 

 corolla white, 2 mm in diameter; woods and thickets, 

 very common. Apr.-June. Goose-grass G. aparine L. 



4. Leaves 0.5-2 cm long, narrower and more hispidulous; 

 fruits 1.5-3 mm in diameter, the hairs not pustulate; 

 corolla green, 1 mm in diameter; peduncles with only 2 

 leaf-like bracts; cymes 2-9-flowered; waste places, occa- 

 sional; adv. from Eur. May- June G. vaillantii DC. 



3. Leaves narrowly oval; corolla greenish-white; plants peren- 

 nial; damp woods. June-Aug. Sweet-scented Bedstraw 



G. triflorum Michx. 



2. Leaves not cuspidate, 4 in each whorl. 



5. Flowers solitary, sessile, axillary, white, subtended by a 

 pair of foliaceous bracts; leaves elliptical, ciliate, 5-10 mm 

 long, 1-2 mm wide, 1 -veined; rocky ledges in s.w. 111. May- 

 June G. virgatum Nutt. 



5. Flowers in cymes or panicles. 



6. Leaves narrowly lanceolate or linear, glabi'ous or nearly 

 so, or the margins and midxcins scabrous; flowers white, 

 numerous in a terminal panicle; in sandy or rocky 

 soil along roads or in woods and thickets, or occasion- 

 ally in bogs. May- July. Northern Bedstraw 



- G. bore ale L. 



6. Leaves oval, more or less pubescent. 



7. Leaves 1 -veined, or obscurely 3-veined at base, oval; 

 flowers greenish-purple, pedicelled, paniculate; fruit 



3-4 mm in diameter; woods, local. June-Aug 



G. pilosum Ait. 



7. Leaves 3-veined, oval-lanceolate; flowers greenish- 

 yellow, puberulent, sessile or nearly so, in few- 

 flowered cymes; fruit 2-3 mm in diameter; woods. 

 May-July. ^Vild I^icorice [G. circaezans var. Iiypo- 



malacurn Fern.] G. circaezans Michx. 



1 Ovary and fruit glabrous. 



