AMONG THE WILD FLOWERS. 
IX. 
On grassy banks, both in fields and by way- 
sides, as May advances, you meet with beds 
of Galium cruciatum, the Crosswort Bedstraw, 
fully suggestive of the name of the genus, by 
its lax growth, and pale greenish-yellow ap- 
pearance. Few sights are prettier of the kind 
than beds of this plant with the arched stems 
of the blue-bell suspending their flowers among 
them. 
This genus, Galium, is numerous; it is of 
Linn. Cl. IV., and Nat. Ord. Rupiace&. This 
Order is named from Azdza, Madder, besides 
which plant it includes the Woodruff, Asperula, 
and the little Field Madder, Serardia, whose 
lilac clusters of flowers are seen in cultivated 
fields. Most of these have a corolla with 4 
regular divisions, spreading out in a flat surface 
81 
F 
