MADDER FAMILY 



RUBIACE^ 



The Madder family is a comparatively small 

 group which includes a few herbaceous wild flow- 

 ers common in the United States. These have 

 small leaves which are arranged either opposite 

 each other or in whorls around the stalk. In 

 most cases the flow^ers are of two or three forms 

 as regards the lengths of the stamens and pistils. 

 The calyx tube is attached to the ovary and the 

 petals are united to form the corolla. 



Bluets. The familiar Bluets, or Quaker 

 Ladies, are the most abundant of the spring 

 wild flowers that belong to this family. These 

 blossoms are especially well known by the 

 people in New England and the eastern re- 

 gion of the United States. Although the plant 

 has a rather wide range, being found in the 

 east from Nova Scotia to Georgia and ex- 

 tending westward as far as Alichigan, it seems 

 to be the most general and abundant in New 

 England, where, in almost any locality, hillsides 

 may be found tinted with it in May. The species 

 is now called by many common names, although 

 early in the nineteenth century it apparently had 

 no such names. In his Plants of Boston, pub- 



131 



