H FLOWERS OF THE HEATHS AND MOORS 



and covers the ground in a matted manner. The stems i;row in tufts, 

 but are short and wealc. They are quite smooth, and angular. The 

 leaves are vvhorled, 4-6, inversely egg-shaped, acute, blunt with a 

 sharp point, rough at the margin, with prickles directed forward, flat, 

 with a slender midrib. 



The flowers, which are white, numerous, and closely associated, are 

 in a cyme, and rather small. The petals are acute. The fruit is 

 granular, not stiffly hairy, and the llower-stalks are erect to spreading. 

 When dried the plant turns black, unlike the Rough Marsh Bedstraw, 

 which retains its colour when dried, and has bristles at the angles of 

 the stem turned back. The plant is 6 in. high at most. It flowers 

 freely from April to September. Heath Bedstraw is a deciduous, 

 herbaceous perennial increasing by division. 



The flowers, though small, are white and conspicuous, grow- 

 ing in a compact cyme, and contain honey, which is not concealed. 

 There are 4 stamens and 2 short styles close together. The stigmas 

 are capitate. Being sweet-scented and growing in the open, the 

 plant is accessible to insects, and liable to be cross-pollinated. 



The fruit is rough, and adapted to dispersal by animals, clinging 

 to the wool of sheep. 



This Bedstraw is a humus- loving plant to some extent, growing 

 on heaths where there is humus, or on rocks where, though the rock 

 soil is stony, humus has collected. 



On its leaves one may find a diminutive fungus, /^cidimn valantice. 

 Beetles such as Rleligethes coracinus, Tiiiiarcha tenebricosa, T. violacco- 

 tiigra, Scrmyle he/ensis; Lepidoptera such as Beech Green Carpet 

 {Larentia olivafa), Satyr Pug {Eupithecia saty7-aia), Small Argent and 

 Sable {Melanippc tristaia). Wood Carpet {^M. rivata), M. bv-iviata, 

 Royal Mantle (Anticlca simiata), Eubolia, LygTJs, &c.; a Homopteron, 

 Trioza galii; and the Heteroptera Pacilocytus gyllenhelii, P. nigritus, 

 P. Jtnifasciafns, and the Hymenopterous insect Halictus luteicollis feed 

 upon Bedstraws generally. 



Galium, Dioscorides, is from the Greek gala, milk, referring to the 

 property of coagulating milk characteristic of another species; and the 

 second Latin name refers to its habitat, rocky places. 



This species is also called Lady's Bedstraw, Our Lady's Bedstraw, 

 a name which refers to the habit of using dried plants as bedding, and 

 is associated with the Blessed Virgin from her having given birth to 

 our Saviour in a stable. 



Heath Bedstraw was said to induce love. It was reputed to have 

 filled the manger in which the infant Jesus was laid. 



