RUBIACE^. 227 



rough with dcflcxed prickles. Leaves 6 to 8 in a whorl, strap- 

 shaped, slightly attenuated towards the base, cuspidate, glabrous, 

 very rough on the margins with hooked prickles curved backwards. 

 Plowers white, 1 to 3 in umbellate cymes, with or without a pair 

 of bracts where the pedicels spring from the peduncle. Peduncles 

 ascending, slightly recurved after flowering, shorter than or only 

 equalling the leaves from which they spring; pedicels strongly 

 recurved in fruit. Pruit of 2, or more often (by abortion) of 1 

 globular grain, about the size of a sweet-pea seed, white, evenly 

 granulated with rather large tubercles but no hairs. 



In cultivated fields. Common in chalky districts, more rare 

 elsewhere, and not reaching North of Yorkshire and Durham. 



England. Annual. Summer. 



Very like G. Aparine, but with the leaves much less dilated 

 towards the apex, and without hairs, the prickles on the stem and 

 leaves stronger. Leaves much more abruptly acuminate ; the 

 flowers smaller, and of a yellower white ; the fruit peduncles much 

 shorter, and the pedicels recurved, and being 3 in number, have 

 been repeatedly compared to the balls over a pawnbroker's shop. 

 The fruit is larger, whiter, and without the hooked bristles of 

 G. Aparine. The plant is of a yellower green. 



G. tricorne, G. Aparine, G. Vaillantii, and G. cruciatum are 

 the only British species with truly axillary inflorescence in which 

 the flowers begin to open first in the cymes at the bottom of the 

 flowering portion of the stem and proceed to expand regularly 

 towards the apex — in the others the flowers begin to open simul- 

 taneously all over the panicle, or even first at its apex. 



Rough Corn Bedstraio. 

 French, Gaillet d, trois Comes. German, Dreihornigea Labhraut. 



GENUS TIL— A S P E R U L A. Linn, 



Calyx-limb obsolete, or of 5 very small teeth. Corolla funnel- 

 shaped or bell-shaped, with a distinct tube ; limb 4-cleft, rarely 

 3-cleft. Eruit didymous, of 2 globular, dry, indehiscent cocca, 

 without any remains of the calyx-limb at the top, separating 

 from each other when ripe. 



Herbs with the habit of Galium, except that in some species 

 the upper leaves are opposite ; but the only important distinction 

 is the presence of a corolla-tube. 



The name of this genus of plants is derived from the Latin word asper, rougb, in 

 reference to the leaves. 



