White and Greenish 



Cleavers; Goose-grass; Bedstraw 



{Galium Apari)ie) Madder family 



Flowers — Small, white, 4-parted, inconspicuous, in clusters of i 

 to 3 on peduncles from the axils of upper leaves. Stem: 2, 

 to 5 ft. long, scrambling, weak, square; bristly on the angles. 

 Leaves: In whorls of 6 or 8, narrow, midrib and edges very 

 rough. Fruit : Rounded, twin seed-vessels, beset with many 

 hooked bristles. 



Preferred Habitat — Shady ground. 



F/ozc'eri>ii( Season — May — September. 



Distribution — Eastern half of United States and Canada. 



Among some seventy other English folk names by which 

 cleavers are known are the following, taken from Britton and 

 Brown's "Illustrated Flora": "Catchweed, Beggar-lice, Burhead, 

 Clover-grass, Cling-rascal, ScYatch-grass, Wild Hedge-burs, Hairif 

 or Airif, Stick-a-back or Stickle-back, Gosling-grass or Gosling- 

 weed, Turkey-grass, Pigtail, Grip or Grip-grass, Loveman, Sweet- 

 hearts." From these it will be seen that the insignificant little 

 white flowers impress not the popular mind. But the twin burs 

 which steal a ride on every passing animal, whether man or beast, 

 in the hope of reaching new colonizing ground far from the 

 parent plant, rarely fail to make an impression on one who has 

 to pick trailing sprays beset with them off woollen clothing. 



Several other similar bur-bearing relatives there are, common 

 in various parts of America as they are in Europe. The Sweet- 

 scented Bedstraw (G. trifoliuni), alwavs with three little greenish 

 flowers at the end of a footstalk, or branched into three pedicels 

 that are one to three flowered, and with narrowly oval, one- 

 nerved leaves arranged in whorls of six on its square stem, ranges 

 from ocean to ocean on this continent, over northern Europe, and 

 in Asia from Japan to the Himalavas. It will be noticed that 

 plants depending upon the by hook or by crook method of travel 

 are among the best of globe trotters. This species becomes in- 

 creasingly fragrant as it dries. 



Common Elder; Black-berried, American, or 

 Sweet Elder ; Elderberry 



{Sambucus Canadensis) Honeysuckle family 



Flowers — Small, creamy, white, numerous, odorous, in large, flat- 

 topped, or convex cvmes at ends of branches. Calyx tubular, 

 minute ; corolla of 5 spreading lobes ; s stamens ; style short, 



254 



