BEDSTRAW FAMILY 235 



carpels. The majority, forming the tribe CinchonecB, are tropical 

 trees and shrubs with small stipules, and comprise not a few 

 species noted for the fragrance and beauty of their flowers, and 

 some of the highest utility to man, as food or medicine. Among 

 the food-plants, the Coffee {C6§ea ardbica and C. liberica) holds 

 the first place, the seeds filled with horny albumen being the 

 coffee-beans of commerce. Several species o{ Cinchona^ a genus 

 native to the Andes, furnish Peruvian or Jesuits' Bark, from 

 which Quinine is prepared ; and Ipecacuanha is the root of 

 Cephdelis Ipecacudnha, a small shrub growing in the damp forests 

 of Brazil. The British species, however, all belong to a very 

 distinct type. They are herbaceous plants, with slender angular 

 stems, and leaves with such large stipules between them as to form 

 a star-like whorl, whence they have been separated as the tribe 

 StelldtcE. Their flowers are small, polysymmetric and 4 — 6-merous ; 

 the sepals sometimes indistinguishable ; corolla rotate or tubular ; 

 ovary 2-chambered ; ovule. 1 in each chamber; fruit dry, con- 

 sisting of 2 indehiscent cocci. They belong to temperate and 

 cold latitudes and possess no remarkable properties, except that 

 of containing a red colouring matter in their roots, which is used 

 as a dye. The most important is Ruhia tinddria, the J^Iadder, 

 the roots of which, besides yielding the valuable dye, possess 

 the singular property of imparting a red colour to the bones 

 of animals that feed on them. Rubia cor di folia is the Man jit, 

 another valuable red dye, a native of India. None of the British 

 species are of any great value, through the fragrance of the leaves 

 of the Woodruff, when dried, is well known, the flowers of the 

 Lady's Bedstraw {Galium verum) were used as rennet to curdle 

 milk, and the seeds of the genus Galium are said to be, when 

 roasted, a good substitute for coffee. 



1. Rubia. — No distinct sepals; corolla wheel-shaped, or bell- 

 shaped, 5-lobed ; fruit fleshy. 



2. Galium. — No distinct sepals ; corolla wheel-shaped, 4-lobed; 

 fruit dry. 



3. AsPERULA. — No distinct sepals; corolla bell-shaped, 4-lobed ; 

 fruit dry. 



4. Sherardia. — Sepals 4 — 6 ; corolla funnel-shaped, 4-lobed ; 

 fruit dry. 



I. Rubia (Madder). — Herbs with axillary and terminal cymes 

 of small flowers ; calyx-limb ring-shaped or absent ; corolla rotate 

 or campanulate, 5-lobed ; stamens 4 ; styles 2, short : fruit a 2- 

 lobed berry. (Name from the Latin ruber^ red, from the dye 

 obtained from some species.) 



