170 rubiacejE. (madder family.) 



flowers white; fruit (large) bristly with hooked prickles. — Moist thickets. Doubt- 

 ful if truly indigenous in our district. (Eu.) 



# * Perennial: leaves 4-6 (in the last species 8) in a lohorl. 

 *- Peduncles axillary and terminal, few-flowered : flowers ivhite or greenish. 



2. G. aspriGilssiBJ, Michx. (Rough Bedstraw.) Stem weak, much 

 branched, rough backwards with hooked prickles, leaning on bushes (3° -5° 

 high) ; leaves in whorls of 6, or 4- 5 on the branchlets, aval-lanceolate, pointed, with 

 almost prickly margins and midrib; peduncles many, short, 2-3 times forked; 

 Jiv.it usually smooth. — Low thickets, common northward. July. — Branchlets 

 covered with numerous but very small white flowers. 



3. G. coanciBBaiagiiiB, Torr. & Gr. Stems low, diffuse, with minutely 

 roughened angles ; leaves all in whorls of 6, linear, slightly pointed, veinless, the 

 margins upwardly roughened ; peduncles slender, 2-3 times forked, somewhat 

 panicled at the summit; pedicels short ; fruit smooth. — Perm, and Michigan to 

 Kentucky. June. — Plant 6'- 12' high, slender, but rather rigid, not turning 

 blackish in drying, like the rest. 



4. G. trltisllizii, L. (Small Bedstraw.) Stems weak, ascending 

 (5' -20' high), branching, roughened backwards on the angles ; leaves in whorls 

 of 4 to 6, linear or ^lanceolate, obtuse, the margins and midrib rough ; peduncles 

 I -3-flowered ; pedicels slender; corolla-lobes and stamens often 3 ; fruit smooth. 

 — Var. 1. tinctorium : stem stouter, with nearly smooth angles, and the parts 

 of the flower usually in fours. Var. 2. latifolium (G. Obtusum, Bigd.) : 

 stem smooth, widely branched; leaves oblong, (juite rough on the midrib and 

 margins. — Swamps; common, and very variable. June -Aug. (Eu.) 



5. G. Irs^da'asaS!, Michx. (Sweet-scented Bedstraw.) Stem weak, 

 reclining or prostrate (l°-3° long), bristly -roughened backwards on the angles, 

 shining ; leaves 6 in a whorl, elliptical-lanceolate, bristle-pointed, with slightly 

 roughened margins (l'-2' long) ; peduncles 3-Jlowi red, the flowers all pedicelled; 

 fruit bristly with hooked hairs. — Rich woodlands, common. July. — Lobes of 

 the greenish corolla pointed. (Eu.) 



■*- h- Peduncles several-flowered : flowers dull purple or brownish (rarely cream-color) : 

 petals mucronate or bristle-pointed: fruit, densely hooked-bristly. 



6. G. juildsiSESB, Ait. Stern ascending, somewhat simple, hairy ; laves m 

 fours, oral, dotted, hairy ; I' long), scarcely 3-nerved ; peduncles twice or thrice 

 2-3-forked, the flowers all pedicelled. — Dry copses, Rhode Island and Vermont 

 to Elinois and southward. June- Aug. — Var. functiculosum is a nearly 

 smooth form (G. puncticulosum, Michx.) : Virginia and southward. 



7. G. ciB-C£fezaBBS, Michx. (Wild Liquorice.) Smooth or dowuy, 

 erect or ascending (1° high) ; leaves in fours, oval, varying to ovate-oblong, 

 mostly obtuse, 3-nerved, ciliate (l'-U' long); peduncles usually once forked, the 

 branches elongated and widely diverging in fruit, bearing several remote flowers 

 on very short lateral pedicels, reflexed in fruit; lobes of the corolla hairy outside 

 above the middle. — Rich woods; common. June- Aug. — The var. montA- 

 NUM is a dwarf, broad-leaved form, from mountain woods. 



8. G. laaBceoU\tuua, Torr. (Wild Liquorice.) Leaves in fours 



