186 GALIUM. [ctASS IV. ORDER I. 



Root small, fibrous. Stems several, slender, weak, square, the angles 

 rough, with reflexcd prickles. Leaves in numerous whorls of about 

 eight, lanceolate ; the margins, and sometimes the midrib, rough, with 

 retlexed prickles, which character, togtiher with the granulated, not 

 tubcrculated fruit, distinguishes it from the preceding species, for which 

 it appears to have been mistaken. 



Habitat. — Dry fields in England. Isle of Thanet ; in Surrey; and 

 near Stamford, Lincolnshire — Hv(hon. Oxfordshire, Yorkshire, Glou- 

 cestershire, Norfolk, Suffolk — Rev. G. R. Leather. Fields near Caris- 

 brook, Isle of Wight — Turner and Borrer. 



Annual ; flowering in July. 



This and the following species, Professor Henslow thinks it probable, 

 have been introduced by the agency of man. 



14. G. spu'rium, Linn. (Fig. 235.) snwotlt-fniited Corn Bed-strau: 

 Leaves about eight in a whorl, lanceolate, their margins as well as 

 the stem rough with reflexed prickles ; flower-stalks axillary, 

 many-flowered ; fruit smooth, spreading. 



English Botany, t. 1871.— English Flora, vol. i. p. QOC— Lindley, 

 Synopsis, p. 129. — Hooker, British Flora, vol. i. p. 08. 



Root small, fibrous. Stem spreading, branched, square, its angles 

 rough with reflexed prickles, as well as the margins and midribs of the 

 lanceolate leaves, which are in whorls of from six to nine ; the point of 

 each is pale, and terminated by a rather long bristle. Inflorescence in 

 axillary clusters ; the peduncles about the length of the leaves, slender, 

 rough, and bearing from six to eight small yellowish //o?fvr.?, and one 

 or two small bractece. Frait of two small, brown, kidney-shaped lobes, 

 having a central vacancy between them, quite smooth and even, erect 

 or spreading, never recurved. 



Habitat. — Corn-fields, near Forfar, rare — Mr. G. Don. 



Annual; flowering in July. 



So nearly allied is this plant, both in habit and appearance, except 

 in the fruit, to the following species, as to induce Sprengel to assert 

 that they are one and the same. 



*** Fruit bristli/. Flouers white. 



15. G. Apari'ne, Linn. (Fig. 236.) Goose-grass, or Cleavers. Leaves 

 from six to eight in a whorl, lanceolate, bristly; the margins, mid- 

 rib, and angles of the stem rough with reflexed prickles; flower- 

 stalks axillary, fcw-flowcrrd. 

 Engli^h Botany, t. 81(5.— English Flora, vol. i. p. 210.— Lindley, 

 Synopsis, p. 130. — Hooker, British Flora, vol. i. p. 68. 



Root fibrous. Stetn much branched and spreading, adhering toother 

 plants near which it grows, often from four to six feet long, s(|uare and 

 shilling, its angles more or less beset with sharp, reflcxi'I, hooked 



