20 RUBIACEJE. Galium. 



Styles 2, united at the base : stigmas globose. Fruit didymous, dry or 

 sometimes fleshy, separable when ripe into 2 indehiscent 1-seeded carpels. 

 Albumen horny. — Herbaceous or very rarely suffrutescent plants, with tetra- 

 gonal stems ; the root frequently containing a red coloring matter. Flowers 

 (rarely polygamous) small, axillary or terminal, cymulose, or rarely solita- 

 ry ; the cymules often paniculate. — Cleavers. Bed-straw. 



§ 1. Root annual. — Aparine, DC. 



1. G. Aparine (Linn.) : stem weak, branching, retrorsely aculeolate-his- 

 pid, hairy about the nodes; leaves mostly 8 in a whorl, oblanceolate-linear, 

 apiculate ; the margin and keel aculeolate ; peduncles elongated, axillary, 

 1-2-flowered ; fruit large, verv hispid with hooked bristles. — Linn. spec. I. p. 

 108; Engl. hot. t. 816^- Pursh, ft- 1- P- 103; Biirel.fl. Bost. ed. 2. p. 57; 

 Torr.! fl. I. p. 166 ; DC! prodr. A. p. 608; Hook.Jl. Bor.-Am. \. p. 290;. 

 Darlingt. ! fl. Cest. p. 1 00. 



Shady thickets and margin of woods, Canada and Northern States! Also 

 in Oregon, Douglas, Dr. Scolder. May-June. — Stem 4-8 feet long. 

 Leaves in remote wJiorls, 1-2 inches in length, and 2-3 lines wide, tapering 

 to the base. Flowers white, very small. Fruit larger than in most other 

 species of the genus. — This j/lant has perhaps been introduced from 

 Europe into the United States. Hooker describes a very small variety from 

 Oregon. 



2. G. Californicum (Hook. & Arn.) : small, very hairy throughout ; stems 

 slender, diffiise, branched from the base ; leaves 4 in a whorl, ovaie, acute 

 ormucronate; peduncles nearly terminal, 1-3-flowered, Tiiuch longer tlian 

 the leaves; lobes of the corolla ovate, very acute; ovary glabrous. — Hook. 

 8f Arn, ! hot. Bcechei/, suppl. p. 349. 



/3. cr ebr ifoli lan (^uu.l mss.) : leaves reflexed ; ovary hairy. 



y. Texannm : very hirsute througlioiit. 



California, Menzies, Douglas.' Nultall ! {a. S^- /3.) y. Texas, Dm mm on d ! 

 — Plant about a span high. Leaves at length much shorter than the inter- 

 nodes, about 4 lines long, ] -nerved, appearing reticulale-veined by transmit- 

 ted light. "Flowers polygamous, greenish or yellnwish-gret^n " ■(iY«//.) ; 

 the corolla large for the size of the plant. Peduncles and pedicels capillary, 

 the latter usually longer than the flowers. — The var. /3. may be only the fer- 

 tile plant : the fruit is unknown. The Californian plant is probably annual, 

 which is certainly the case with that from Texas: our S|)ecimens of the 

 latter are immature, not even in flower ; but they doubtless belong to this 

 species. 



3. G. virgalum (Nutt. ! mss.) : stems erect, simple or branched from the 

 base, hispid or almost glabrous ; leaves 4 in a whorl, oblong-lanceolate, his- 

 pidly cihate, rather obtuse, much shorter than the iniernodes ; peduncles ax- 

 illary, very short, bibracteolate, 1-flowered ; fruit deflexed, hispid with unci- 

 nate bristles. 



(3. leiocarpum: fruit glabrous ; stem almost glabrous. — G. nutans, iV«<i..' 

 mss. 



Dry prairies of Arkansas, Western Louisiana, and Texas, Nuttall ! Dr. 

 Leavenworth! Dr. Pitcher ! Dr. En^elmann ! Dr. Hnlc ! Drummond ! — 

 Stem 6-10 inches high, simple, or throwing up undivided ascending branches 

 from near the base. Leaves about one-third of an inch Ions, thickish, rather 

 obtuse; the midrib usually beset, like the margins, with scattered rigid hairs. 

 Peduncles 1 to 2, or rarely 3 from each whorl, extremely short, furnished 

 with 2 or rarely 3 bracteolate or involucral leaves, which become nearly as 



