350 RUBIACE^. 



pairs, or in larg-er specimens 4 in the whorl, lanceolate, the alternate pair 

 (answering to stipules ? ) much smaller : peduncles solitary, lateral and 

 terminal, naked, l-flowered, when in fruit about equalling the leaves, 

 spreading: corolla minute, white: fr. recurved, minutely uncinate- 

 hispid. — In moist shades of the higher Sierra. 



2. G. SPUBIUM, Linn. Sp. PI. i. 106 (1753): G. Vaillantii, DO. (1805); 

 G. Aparine, Gray, Bot. Calif, in part, not Linn. Branching chiefly from 

 the base, diffuse, 1 — 2 ft. high, glabrous except the retrorsely scabrous 

 angles of the stem and veins and margins of the leaves: leaves 6—8 in 

 the whorl, linear-oblanceolate, cuspidate: fl. 3 — 9 in axillary umbellate 

 cymes; corolla pale green, the segments acuminate: pedicels recurved 

 after flowering: fruit large, coarsely tuberculate, more or less uncinate- 

 hispid. — Mostly in the mountains back from the seaboard; less common 

 than the next. 



3. G. Aparine, Linn. 1. c. 108. Taller and more slender, 3 — 5 ft. high 

 (or often only a few inches), climbing by the retrorse prickliness of the 

 angles and leaf -margins : corolla minute, white: pedicels straight in 

 fruit: surface of carpel smooth but densely uncinate-hispid. — Very com- 

 mon in shady or open places in woods and along the salt marshes; 

 readily distinguished by the minute white corollas, straight pedicels, and 

 smaller and more prickly carpels. Though both these species are as 

 much at home in our woods and thickets as any indigenous plants, it is 

 probable that they came hither from the Old World within the last two 

 centuries. The villous pubescence at the nodes, which is a part of the 

 ascribed character of this species, is with us seldom noticeable; and yet, 

 in a specimen from the Marysville Buttes, collected by Mr. Jepsou, the 

 whole stem is villous at the angles, without a trace of the usual retrorse 

 prickles. Mar. — May. 



-1— -1— Perennials. 



■M- Stem ivholly herbaceous; fruit not hirsute. 



4. G. asperrimum, Gray, PI. Fendl. 60 (1859). Diffusely branching, 

 1 — 2 ft. high, the numerous slender branches and the leaf-margins more 

 or less ciliolate-scabrous, scarcely spinulose: leaves in sixes, lanceolate 

 or oblauceolate: fl. many, in naked cymes; corolla white (turning dark 

 in drying): fr. granulate and rather densely setulose. — At middle alti- 

 tudes in the Sierra, from Mariposa Co. northward, but not very common. 



5. G. triflorum, Michx. Fl. i. 80 (1803). Stem flaccid, 1 ft. long or 

 more, reclining or at least decumbent, retrorsely aculeate-scabrous on 

 the angles, or smoothish : leaves in sixes, thin, elliptic-lanceolate, acute 

 at both ends, or cuspidate-acuminate, the margins and often the midrib 

 beneath beset with very short usually retrorse and hooked prickles: 



