Chapter XXXVIII. 



From Bedstraws to Lobelias. 

 ff 



The thirty-third order includes the madder family, to which 

 the exotic coffee and cinchona plants belong. From the latter 

 quinine is manufactured. The Minnesota species are all herbs 

 but one — the button-bush — and include about ten kinds of 

 bedstraw. the partridgeberr}' and two Hoiisfoiiins. In addition 

 to the madders, the thirty-third order includes the honeysuckle 

 family, with the honeysuckles, twinflowers. snow-berries, high 

 bush cranberries, arrowwoods, elders and horse-gentians ; the 

 adoxa family, with a single small herb known as the musk crow- 

 foot or moschatel ; and the valerian famil}'. with two valerians 

 and two lamb-lettuces. The teazel family, to w hich the fuller's- 

 teazel belongs, is not represented in Minnesota. 



Bedstraws. Of the madder family the little bedstraws of the 

 woods are well-known forms. Their stems are four-sided, their 

 lea\es are apparently in whorls and are mostl\' slender or wil- 

 low-shai)ed. The stems are armed with recur\cd barbs, so that 

 they cling to one's clothing. The flowers are small, white and 

 clustered in flat-topj^ed cxmes, often aggregated in com- 

 ])()un(I ])anicles. Each tlower exhibits a four-lobed cal)x and 

 a four-lobed corolla, upon which fcur stamens are borne in 

 the notches. The fruit consists of two nutlets, side l)\' side, 

 and in each of them a single seed is formed. The different 

 kinds of bedstraw are distinguished b\- llic characlcr of the 

 nutlets, the color of the llowers, and a number of minute i)ecul- 

 iarities which can scarcely be recognized without the use of a 

 microscope. .Most of the Minnesota \arielic> ha\e frui'.s i)ro- 

 A idcd with hooks, but in some the fruits are (|uite smooth. 

 The blender, trailing, clinging stem, whorled lea\es. foiu'-lobed 

 flowers rmd two-nutleted fruits will ser\e to idcniif\- these 

 jilants. ( )ne \ariety i> a conmion prairie tlower. 



