CLEAVERS 201 
It is called Stick-a-back because of its hooked fruits. Children 
placed stems upon each other's backs with the fruits hanging on them. 
Goose Grass was conferred as a name because it was used as food for 
young geese. The fruits are called Beggar’s Lice. In regard to the 
name Blind Tongue, Wilkinson writes: ‘Children with the leaves 
practise Phlebotomy upon the tongue of those playmates who are 
simple enough to endure 
it.” The name Catch- 
rogue was given because it 
generally grows in hedges, 
and adheres to the clothes 
of those who attempt to 
break through. Cleavers, 
Clever, Grip-grass_ refer 
to its cleaving or clinging 
habit. Goosebill was given 
because the leaves have 
coarsely-toothed margins, 
like a goose’s bill. Harif 
is from the French hevzffe, 
standing up like bristles. 
Galium is from the 
Greek ga/a, meaning milk, 
and is applied to the genus 
because another species 
is used in curdling milk. 
The second name is the 
Greek word for the plant, 
probably from apazro, lay = Photo. AERTS 
hold of. CLEAVERS (Galium Aparine, L.) 
The fruits are given to 
poultry, and both cattle and horses eat it. In Sweden the fruits are 
used for coffee. Dioscorides tells us that the stems were used as a 
sieve, and the same use is applied to them in Sweden to-day. An oint- 
ment for scalds and burns has been made from it. Being astringent, it 
has also been used for colds and swellings. A kind of beer is made 
from it in some districts. It is a blood-purifier, and young shoots are 
used in spring to make a broth. The juice was used for scorbutic 
complaints. A red dye is prepared from the roots. The juice has also 
been used for earache and for bites from poisonous snakes and spiders. 
Gravel was said to be cured by the use of a strong dose of it. 
