138 COROLLI FLORAE 



Natural Order XLI 

 RUBIACEiE. The Madder Tribe 



Calyx 4 to 6-lobed, or wanting ; corolla 4 to 6-lobed, wheel- 

 shaped or tubular, regular ; stamens equal in number to the lobes 

 )[ the corolla and alternate with them ; ovary 2-celled ; style 

 2-cleft ; stigmas 2 ; pericarp 2-celled, 2-seeded. This Order, 

 taken in its widest extension, is one of the largest with which we 

 are acquainted, containing more than 2800 species, of which some 

 are of the highest utility to man, both as food and medicine. Among 

 the former, Coffea Arabica and C. liberica hold the first place. The 

 seeds of these trees furnish the coffee of commerce. Several 

 species of Cinchona, a South American family, furnish Peruvian 

 Bark and Quinine ; and drugs of similar properties are obtained 

 from other plants of the same tribe. 



Ipecacuanha is prepared from the root of a small plant, Cephaelis 

 Ipecacuanha, which grows in the damp, shady forests of Brazil. 

 The wood of another plant of this tribe, Evosmia corymbosa, is so 

 poisonous that Indians have been poisoned by eating meat roasted 

 on spits made of it. Not a few, moreover, are noted for the fra- 

 grance and beauty of their flowers. Ah the above-mentioned are 

 natives of hot climates ; the British species are very different, 

 both in habit and properties. They are herbaceous plants, with 

 slender, angular stems, leaves which with intermediate stipules of 

 equal size form star-like whorls, and small flowers ; possessing no 

 remarkable properties, except that of containing a colouring matter 

 in their roots, which is used as a dye. This group has been sepa- 

 rated by botanists, and made to constitute a distinct order, under 

 the name of Stellate, a name particularly appropriate to them, 

 from the star-like arrangement of their leaves and leaf-like stipules. 

 The most important of all of these is Rubia tinctoria, the roots of 

 which afford Madder, a valuable dye, and possess the singular 

 property of imparting a red colour to the bones of animals which 

 feed on them. Another species of Rubia, R. cordifolia, a native 

 of India, affords the valuable red dye, Man jit, of that country. 

 No British species are of any great value, though it is said that the 

 seeds of Galium, when roasted, are a good substitute for coffee, and 

 the flowers of Galium vernum (Lady's Bedstraw) have been used 

 as rennet to curdle milk. The most attractive British species is 

 Woodruff, well known for the fragrance of its leaves when dry. 



1. Rubia (Madder). Corolla wheel-shaped or bell-shaped ; 

 stamens 4 ; fruit a 2-lobed berry. (Name from the Latin, ruber, 

 red, from the dye of that colour afforded by some species.) 



2. Galium (Bedstraw). Corolla wheel-shaped ; stamens 4 ; 

 fruit dry, 2-lobed, 2-seeded, not crowned by the calyx. (Name 



