94 ALIEN FLORA OF BRITAIN 



quently appears in hedges and thickets (as a naturalised 

 plant) near villages. 



RUBIACEiE. 



Asperula arvensis, L. Native of rough stony ground 

 at high altitudes in Syria, Persia, and Afghanistan. A 

 weed in cornfields in Mid and Southern Europe and 

 Northern Africa, and carried as a grain importation into 

 many other countries, including Britain, where it was 

 recorded as early as 1700. 



Asperula taurina, L. Native in woods and shady 

 places from South- Western France to Persia. It has 

 long been in cultivation as one of the Madders, and 

 is now naturalised in many localities in Britain, being 

 doubtless a relic of cultivation. 



Crucianella stylosa, DC. Native of Southern Europe. 

 Once or twice recorded as an introduction in waste 

 places in England, as a result, probably, of garden 

 culture. 



[Galium Aparine, L. One of the commonest weeds 

 of cultivated ground, hedges, and waste places in 

 England and the Continent. On account of its clinging 

 fruits it is carried by cattle into all situations, sometimes 

 far from habitations and quite wild in appearance, 

 whither the animals go in search of food. It is from 

 the more artificial habitats that it is almost invariably 

 recorded in British local Floras, but careful investigation 

 reveals it also, though more rarely, in broken stony 



