GOOSE-GRASS 



GOOSE-GRASS. BEDSTRAW 



Gdliiun apcrine 



Gdlium, Greek, milk, one of the species having been 

 used to curdle milk. 



Annual trailing herb. In rich, shaded grounds. Natu- 

 ralized from Europe. New Brunswick to the Dakotas, 

 south to Florida and Texas. Frequent in northern Ohio. 

 April-September. 



Stem. — Slender, procumbent, four-angled, retrorsely 

 prickly, four to eight feet long. 



Leaves. — In whorls of eight, sometimes fewer, linear- 

 oblanceolate, one to two inches long. 



Flowers. — White, small, in few-flowered clusters borne 

 in the axils of the leaves. 



Calyx. — Tubular, ovate, or globose. 



Corolla. — Rotate, four-parted, white. 



Pistil. — Ovary adnate to the calyx, of two united car- 

 pels; styles two. 



Fruit. — Twin, dry, hairy. 



Gdlium aperine is a plant of English hedges; driven 

 from cultivated fields, it finds a refuge there, as our 

 weeds find their refuge in fence corners. It came to 

 this country very early and is now quite as much at 

 home as any other early emigrant. Though an annual, 

 it responds so quickly to the warmth of spring that it 

 is able to bloom in April. 



The plant sends its wandering, befrilled stems three 

 to five feet away from the life-giving root, and this 

 stem branches and spreads and scrambles and sprawls 

 over everything within reach. Why it succeeds in 



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