238 



RUBIACE.E 



brittle species ; leaves about 6 in a whorl, narrow, mucronate, with 

 forward-pointing bristles on the margins and recurved ones on 

 the stems; cymes small, bifurcating, few-flowered ; flowers greenish ; 

 fruit minute, tubercled — Old walls and dry places in the south- 

 east ; rare. — Fl. June, July. Annual. 



II. G. Aparine (Goose-grass, Cleavers). — Light green, strag- 

 gling, 3 — 4 feet long ; stem and leaves very rough with recurved 

 prickles ; leaves 6 — 8 in a whorl ; flowers 2 — 3 together, white, 



axillary ; fruit covered 

 with short hooked 

 prickles. — Hedges ; 

 very common. The 

 stems, leaves, and bur- 

 like fruits cling to the 

 coat of any animal 

 that touches them ; 

 whence is derived the 

 popular name of 

 Cleavers or Clivers. 

 The plant is greedily 

 devoured by geese. — 

 Fl. June — August. 

 Annual. 



12. G. Vailldntii, 

 differing chiefly in 

 having its flowers very 

 minute, greenish and 

 3 — 9 together, occurs 

 only in fields near 

 Saffron Walden, Essex. 

 — Fl. July. Annual. 



13. G. tricorne 

 (Rough - fruited Corn 

 Bedstraw). — Resem- 

 bling G. Aparine, but 

 smaller and chiefly 



distinguished by its large fruit, which has a granulated, not 

 bristly, surface, and is borne on a recurved pedicel. — Dry chalky 

 fields; not uncommon. — Fl. June— October. Annual. 



3. AsPERULA (Woodruff). — Herbs differing from Galium mainly 

 in the longer tube which makes the small corolla bell-shaped 

 or funnel-shaped. It may be white, pink, or blue. (Name, a 

 diminutive from the Latin asper, rough, from the roughness of 

 the leaves of some species.) 



ASPERULA odorAta {Swect Woodruff). 



