RUBIACE^. (madder FAMILY.) 225 



pretty plaut commemorates Dr. John Mitchell, an early correspondent of Lin- 

 n£eus, and an excellent botanist, who resided in Virginia.) 



1. M. repens, L. — Dry woods, creeping about the foot of trees, especially 

 Coniferai, throughout our range and southward. June, July. — Leaves often 

 variegated with whitish lines Rarely the two flowers are completely conflu- 

 ent into one, with a 10-lobed corolla. 



5. SPERMACbCE, Dill. Button-weed. 



Calyx-tube short; the limb parted into 4 teeth. Corolla funnel-form or 

 salver-form, valvate in the bud Stamens 4. Stigma or style 2-cleft. Fruit 

 small and dry, 2-celled, 2-seeded, splitting wlieu ripe into 2 carpels, one of them 

 usually carrying with it the partition, and therefore closed, the other open on 

 the mner face. — Small lierbs, the bases of the leaves or petioles connected by 

 a bristle-bearing stipular membrane Flowers small, whitish, crowded into 

 sessile axillary whorled clusters or heads. (Name compounded of airepfxa, seed, 

 and aKuixi], a point, probably from the pointed calyx-teeth on the fruit.) 



1. S. glabra, Michx. Glabrous perennial; stems spreading (9 -20' long) ; 

 leaves oblong-lanceolate ; heads many-flowered ; corolla little exceeding the 

 calyx, bearded in the throat, bearing the anthers at its base ; filaments and 

 style hardly any. — River-banks, S. Ohio to Ark., Tex., and Fla. Aug. 



6. DIODIA, Gronov. Button-weed. 



Calyx-teeth 2-5, often unequal. Fruit 2- (rarely 3-) celled ; the crustaceous 

 carpels into which it splits all closed and indehiscent. Flowers 1-3 in each 

 axil. Otherwise resembling Spermacoce. Flowering all summer. (Name 

 from ^iohos, a thoroughfare ; the species often growing by the wayside.) 



1. D. Virginiana, L Smooth or hairy perennial ; stems spreading ( 1 - 

 2° long) ; leaves lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, sessile , corolla white (^' long), 

 the slender tube abruptlij expanded into the larcje limb; stijle 2-parted , fruit 

 oblong, stronglij furrowed, crowned mostly with 2 slender calyx-teeth — Low 

 grounds along streams, southern N. J to Fla., west to Ark. and Tex. 



2. D. teres, Walt. Hairy or minutely pubescent annual ; stem spreading 

 (3-9' long), nearly terete; leaves linear-lanceolate, closely sessile, rigid ; co- 

 rolla funnel -form (2 -W long, whitish), with short lobes, not exceeding the long 

 bristles of the stipules : stfjle undivided ; fruit obovate-turbinate, not furrou-ed , 

 crowned with 4 short calyx-teeth. — Sandy soil, X J. to W. 111., Fla., and Tex 



7. GALIUM, L. Bedstraw. Cleavers 



Calyx-teeth obsolete. Corolla 4-parted, rarely 3-parted, wheel-shaped, val- 

 vate in the bud. Stamens 4, rarely 3, short. Styles 2. Fruit dry or fleshy, 

 globular, twin, separating when ripe into the 2 seed-like, indehiscent, 1-seeded 

 carpels. — Slender herbs, with small cymose flowers (produced in summer), 

 square stems, and whorled leaves , the roots often containing a red coloring 

 matter (Xame from 7dAo, mdk, which some species are used to curdle.) 



§1. Naturalized species ; fruit drfj. 



G. VERUM, L. (Yet.low Bedstraw.) Perennial; stems smooth, erect ; 

 leaves 8 or sometimes 6 in the whorls, linear, roughish, soon deflexed ; flowers 



