RUBIACEAE (MADDER FAMILY) 467 



Annuals; fruit hispid or hirsute. 



Stems rough on the angles; leaves 6-8 in each whorl. 



Stems erect or ascending; fruit 2-3 mm. broad . . . . 1. G. Vaillantii. 



Stems reclining; fruit 4-6 mm broad . . . . . . 2. G. Aparine. 



Stems erect, smooth; 'leaves mostly in fours . . . . . 3. G. bifolium. 



Perennials. 



Stems wholly herbaceous; flowers perfect. 



Leaves 3-nerved; fruit canescent, becoming glabrous . . . 4. G. boreale. 

 Leaves 1-nerved; fruit smooth or hispid. 



Leaves cuspidate-pointed . . . . . . . 5. G. triflorum. 



Leaves not cuspidate-pointed. 

 Fruit hispid with hooked hairs. 



Stems and pedicels more or less scabrous . . . 6. G. trifidum. 



Stems and pedicels glabrous . . . . . . 7. G. Brandegei. 



Fruit merely granulate-scabrous . . . . . . 8. G. asperrimum. 



Stems somewhat woody at base; flowers dioecious . . . 9. G. coloradoense. 



1. Galium Vaillantii DC. Fl. Fr. 4: 263. 1805. Stems slender, branching 

 from the base, diffuse, 3-5 dm. long, retrorsely hispid on the angles: leaves 

 6-8 in the whorl, linear-oblanceolate, cuspidate, 1-2.5 cm. long, retrorsely 

 scabrous on the veins and margin, the axillary umbellate cymes 3-9-flowered: 

 corolla about 2 mm. in diameter, white or greenish: fruit large, more or less 

 fine-tuberculate and uncinate-hispid. Throughout our range and westward. 



2. Galium Aparine L. Sp. PI. 108. 1753. Stems coarse, reclining, 3-15 

 dm. long, introrsely hispid on the angles: leaves 6-8 in the whorls, oblanceo- 

 late to almost linear, 3-5 cm. long, cuspidate-acuminate, retrorsely hispid on 

 the margin and midrib: peduncles rather long, 1-3 in the upper axils or ter- 

 minal, bearing 1-3 pedicellate flowers: corolla 2-4 mm. in diameter, whitish: 

 fruit not pendulous, rather large, granulate-tuberculate, the tubercles tipped 

 with uncinate bristles. In rich lands along streams, etc.; California to Alaska 

 and across the continent. 



3. Galium bifolium Wats. Bot. King's Exp. 134. 1871. Smooth and gla- 

 brous; stems slender, 1-3 dm. high, mostly erect, sparingly branched: leaves 

 2-4 in the whorl, lanceolate, 8-15 mm. long, when 4 the alternate pair much 

 smaller: peduncles solitary, lateral and terminal, naked, 1-flowered, when in 

 fruit about equaling the leaves, spreading: corolla minute, white: fruit small, 

 minutely hispid, recurved at the end of the peduncle. Colorado and Wyo- 

 ming to California and Washington. 



4. Galium boreale L. 1. c. Erect, 3-6 dm. high, mostly smooth and gla- 

 brous, very leafy: leaves in fours, 3-nerved, blunt, linear to broadly lan- 

 ceolate, often with fascicles of smaller ones in the axils: flowers very numer- 

 ous and collected in a terminal and ample thyrsiform panicle, the uppermost 

 leaves being reduced to pairs of small oblong or oval bracts: fruit small, 

 hispidulous, or at first canescent and soon glabrous and smooth. From 

 New Mexico and California north to the arctic regions. 



5. Galium triflorum Michx. Fl. 1 : 80. 1803. Diffusely procumbent, smooth- 

 ish; herbage sweet-scented in drying; stems 3-10 dm. long: leaves in sixes, 

 elliptical-lanceolate to narrowly oblong, 3-5 cm. long, scabrous or not on the 

 margins and midrib beneath: cymes once or twice 3-rayed; pedicels soon 

 divaricate: corolla yellowish-white to greenish, the lobes hardly surpassing the 

 bristles of the ovary. (G. flaviflorum Heller.) Across the continent. 



6. Galium trifidum L. 1. c. 105. Weakly erect, branching, 1-5 dm. high, 

 smooth and glabrous, except for the retrorsely scabrous angles of the stem 

 and the usually more hispidulous and sparse roughness of the midrib and 

 margins of the leaves: leaves in sixes, fives, or not rarely fours, linear, ob- 

 lanceolate, or lanceolate-oblong, obtuse, 1-2 cm. long: peduncles slender, 

 scattered, 1-several-flowered; flowers often 3-merous, as commonly 4-merous: 

 fruit smooth and glabrous. From Texas to California, northward and east- 

 ward. 



6a. Galium trifidum subbiflorum Wiegand, Bull. Torr. Bot. Club 24: 399. 

 1897. Stems less scabrous than in the type, somewhat stouter: leaves larger, 

 very unequal, 8-10 mm. by 2 mm., flaccid and nearly smooth : pedicels capillary 

 and as long as the leaves, or sometimes rather stout: rarely 2 or even 3- 

 flowered, nearly glabrous. From our range to the Pacific. 



