RUBIACE^. 211 



many-seeded. Seed with the albumen horny or fleshy; embryo 

 straight or slightly curved in the middle of the albumen ; cotyledons 

 foliaceous. 



All the British species belong to the 



Sub-Order I.— STELLATtE. 



Herbs with square stems and whorled entire leaves destitute of 

 stipules. Plowers small, regular, white, yellow, pink, or purple, 

 arranged in small terminal axillary dichotomous or corymbose 

 cymes. Calyx-limb generally obsolete, when present 3- to 6-lobed. 

 Corolla monopetalous, rotate or funnel- or salver-shaped ; limb 3- 

 to 6-cleft or -partite. Stamens as many as the lobes of the corolla. 

 Emit usually dry, 2-coccous, didymous ; each coccum globular or 

 sub-globular, indehiscent, 1-celled and 1-seeded, one of the cocca 

 sometimes abortive. Seed with horny albumen. 



GEN US L—R U B I A. Linn, 



Calyx-limb obsolete. Corolla flat, rotate ; limb 3- to 5-partite. 

 Stamens 3 to 5. Eruit of 2 globular fleshy indehiscent cocca, 

 without any remains of the calyx-limb at the top, not separating 

 from each other when ripe, one of cocca often abortive. 



Diffuse herbs with square stems, having the leaves 4 to 8 in a 

 whorl, and axillary peduncles bearing few-flowered cymes of small 

 greenish-white or ochreous flowers. 



The name of this genus of plants comes from ruber, red, in allusion to the colour 

 which pervades its roots. 



SPECIES L— RUBIA PEREGRIN A. Linn. 



Plate DCXLV. 



Edch. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. XVII. Tab. MCLXXXIX. Fig. 3. 

 Billot, Fl. Gall, et Germ. Exsicc. No. 1890. 



Stem herbaceous, rough, woody at the base. Leaves 4 to 6 in 

 a whorl, evergreen, rigid, varying from elliptical to roundish-oval, 

 glabrous, with the margins and midrib rough beneath with short 

 curved prickles. Elowers in axillary and terminal forked cymes 

 arranged in a leafy panicle. Corolla rotate, with the segments 

 ovate, cuspidate. 



In bushy places, thickets, hedges, and rocky ground. Not 

 uncommon in the South-west of England ; occurring in the counties 

 of Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset, Hants, Sussex, Kent, 



