917 



GALIUM. 



GALLIN^E. 



918 



are often simple, occasionally 3-4-5-leafleted, not divided at the edge, 

 covered with pellucid or grandular dots. The flowers are small, 

 white or pink, often fragrant, iu axillary, extra-axillary or terminal 

 racemes, corymbs, or panicles. 



G. cugparia is a tree from 60 to 80 feet high, evergreen, with an 

 ash-coloured bark and a pale yellow box-like wood. The leaves are 

 alternate, loug-stalked ; the leaflets 3, sessile, unequal, ovate, lanceo- 

 late, acute, smooth, entire, bright-green, gratefully fragrant, with 

 scattered glandular dots. The flowers are in axillary and terminal 

 recemes, on a peduncle as long as the petioles. The calyx and corolla 

 are white, with fascicles of hairs seated on glandular bodies on the 

 outside. The anthers have two short appendages. This species is 

 said by Humboldt to produce Angostura Bark, but this is denied by 

 Dr. Hancock, who assigns it to the following species. 



G. officinalit is found in the higher lands of the missions of Carowy. 

 It is well known in the southern and back missions of the Orinoco. 

 The bark is smooth. The leaves alternate, 3-foliate ; the petiole about 

 the length of the leaflets, slightly channelled, the leaflets ovate, acute 

 at the base, acuminate at the apex, smooth, glossy, bright-green, 

 smelling when bruised and fresh like tobacco; from 6 to 10 inches 

 long, 2 to 4 inches broad ; some of the leaflets are marked with small 

 whitish round spots. The panicles are cylindrical, contracted, stalked, 

 longer than the leaves, with the branches about 3-flowered. The 

 calyx is campanulate, 5-toothed, hairy. The corolla white, somewhat 

 curved before expansion ; nearly an inch long, downy on both sides ; 

 of the 5 petals two larger than the others. There are 5 sterile stamens, 

 tipped with a pellucid watery gland. The fertile stamens 2 in number, 

 5 carpels or fewer, becoming villous as they mature ; 2-seeded, with a 

 strong elastic separable 2-valved endocarp. According to Dr. Han- 

 cock, this, which he found to yield the true Angostura, or Carowy 

 Bark, is essentially different from the Cusparia febnfuga of Humboldt. 

 An excellent account of that bark is given by Dr. Hancock in the 

 ' Transactions of the Medico-Botanical Society.' " I am fully con- 

 vinced," says he, " from ample experience of the virtues of this bark, 

 that it is one of the most valuable febrifuges we possess, being 

 adapted to the worst and most malignant bilious fevers, while the 

 fevers in which Cinchona is administered are chiefly simple inter- 

 mittents, for the most part unattended with danger. The natives use 

 the bruised bark as a means of intoxicating fishes, which affords a 

 very singular coincidence with what is mentioned by Dr. Saunders, 

 by the same use being made of Cinchona Bark by the Peruvian Indians. 

 Malambo Bark is supposed to be furnished by some plant allied to 

 Galipea. 



QA'LIUM (from ydik, 'milk), a genus of Plants belonging to the 

 natural order Oaliacea or Rubiaceat. The corolla is rotate, 4-parted ; 

 the fruit dry, not crowned with the calyx, and composed of two 

 indehiscent 1-seeded mericarps. The species are branched herbs with 

 variable infloresence. 



G. cruciatum, Cro8wort, has elliptic oblong hairy leaves, four in a 

 whorl ; the flower-stalks lateral, corymbose, bracteated ; terminal 

 fertile flowers, mostly stamniferous ; the fruit-stalks deflexed, and the 

 fruit smooth. It is a native of Europe, and is commonly found in 

 Great Britain. 



G. molluyo, Great Hedge-Bedstraw, or Wild Madder, has about 8 

 leaves in a whorl, they are lanceolate-obovate or obovate-oblong ; the 

 margins rough with prickles pointing forwards ; the branches of the 

 panicle many-flowered, the lower ones spreading horizontally; the 

 fruit glabrous. This species is a native almost throughout Europe 

 and the Caucasus, and is found in Britain. The flowers are white, 

 and sometimes yellowish. The roots are creeping, and yield a red 

 dye like the true Madder, but of a brighter colour ; they also have 

 tlie property of colouring the bones of animals red that feed upon 

 them. This plant has been extolled by M. Jourdan, the director of 

 the hospital at Tain, in Dauphiny, as an effectual cure for epilepsy. 

 It is however to be feared that the cases he details, which are certainly 

 very marvellous, will not justify his reliance on this remedy. 



G. tinctorium, the Dyer's Bedstraw, has smooth decumbent stems ; 

 linear-obtuse leaves, scabrous on the margin and keels ; elongated 

 axillary terminal and many-flowered peduncles. The corolla has 

 4 obtuse lobes, and the fruit is smooth and glabrous. This species is 

 a native of North America, in low marshy places, especially in Canada 

 and Newfoundland ; it is also found in the Straits of De Fuca. It is 

 very nearly allied to G. trifidum, but is distinguished by the stems 

 being smooth and the flowers always 4-parted. 



'.. i>aliutre, a native of Great Britain, nearly resembles G. tinctorium 

 when the leaves are more numerous than usual. It is said that from 

 the roots of this plant the Indians extract the red dye with which 

 they colour their feathers and the ornaments of their dress. 



G. tcptcntrirmale, the Northern Bedstraw, has erect tetragonal 

 smooth stems ; oblong lanceolate leaves, 4 in a whorl. The fruit is 

 beset with hooked bristles ; the flowers are numerous and of a milk- 

 white colour. The Cree women use the root of this plant to dye 

 red. It is a native of North America, about the lakes of Canada and 

 the United States. 



'/. rei-uin. Ladie*' Bedstraw, or Cheese-Rennet, is distinguished by 

 having its leaves about 8 in a whorl, linear-setaceous with revolute 

 margin*, channelled above, downy beneath. The flowers iu numerous 

 small dense panicles of a golden-yellow colour. On loose sandy soils 



the flowers are sometimes solitary and the stems much more branched, 

 but agreeing in other respects with this species. It is a native of 

 Europe and Siberia, in meadows, woods, and among bushes, and is 

 found in Britain very commonly in dry soils. The stalks and flowers 

 of this plant have been used in the cheese counties for the purpose of 

 curdling milk, and also for colouring it. Mathiolus says it produces an 

 agreeable flavour, and makes the cheese " eat sweeter." The French 

 formerly used to prescribe the flowers in hysteria and epilepsy. The 

 roots afford a rich red dye, superior in colour to madder. It was 

 grown at one time as a substitute for the true Madder, Rubia Tincto- 

 rum, but the roots are too small to render its culture profitable. 

 This plant seems to be the -ya\iov of Dioscorides. 



G. aparine, the common Goose-Grass, or Cleavers, has from 6 to 8 

 leaves in a whorl ; they are linear-lanceolate, with marginal prickles 

 pointing backwards; axillary 3-flowered peduncles; reflexed granulated 

 fruit. It is a native throughout the whole of Europe, north of Asia, 

 and North America, in hedges, fields, and most cultivated places ; it 

 is plentiful in Great Britain. This plant, according to Burnett, was 

 fancifully called by the Greeks Philanthropes, as they attributed the 

 readiness with which it cleaves to our habiliments to a love of the 

 human species. A mechanical cause will however fully account for 

 this tendency. It is thus it has acquired the names of Cleavers, 

 Catch- Weed, &c., and from being a favourite food or medicine of geese 

 that of Goose-Grass. Dioscorides relates that this plant was used by 

 the shepherds of his time as a sieve to strain milk, and Linnaeus tells 

 us it is still made use of in Sweden for the same purpose. It is the 

 OTropi'nj of Theophrastus. The expressed juice of this herb taken in 

 doses of four ounces or a quarter of a pint night and morning, during 

 several weeks, is said to be a very beneficial remedy in cutaneous 

 disorders, and is believed by the country people to be a purifier 

 of the blood and an antiscorbutic. The seeds have a corneous 

 albumen, and when roasted have been used instead of coffee. We are 

 not aware that they have been analysed, but it is not improbable that 

 they contain a principle similar to caffein, and if this be the case they 

 would form a valuable substitute for coffee. The roots of this 

 species, like most of the genus, afford a rich red dye, and birds that 

 feed on them have their bones tinged with the colour. The roots of 

 G. tubcroium are farinaceous, and in China are cultivated as a dietetic 

 vegetable. Loureiro says that when boiled they are both wholesome 

 and nutritious. Don enumerates 164 species of Galium, which are 

 distributed in every quarter of the world. The common name 

 Bedstraw given to all the species is from the verb to 'strew,' anciently 

 written 'straw.' Before the introduction of modern luxuries beds 

 were made by strewing with various herbs, and doubtless this was 

 one used for that purpose, and has thence acquired its common name. 

 These plants are very easily cultivated and propagated ; they will 

 grow in any common soil, care being paid to the situations in which 

 they are placed, which should as much resemble their natural positions 

 as possible ; those brought from marshes and bogs should have a 

 moist soil, and the natives of warmer climates should be protected 

 during the winter. None of them however are worth cultivation 

 unless in botanical gardens. 



(Fraas, Synopsis Plant, Flor<v Classical ; Don, Dichlamydeous 

 Planti; Burnett, Outlines of Botany ; Babington, Manual of British 

 Botany.) 



GALL. [BiLE.] 



GALL-BLADDER. [LiVER.] 



GALLI'COL^E, a family of Hymenopterous Insects of the section 

 Pupivora. Distinguishing characters : Posterior wings having but 

 one nervure ; anterior wings with two branchial cells, a radial cell of 

 a triangular form ; two or three cubital cells, of which the second 

 (where there are three) is very small, and third large, and bounded 

 by the apical margin of the wing ; antenna; of equal thickness from 

 the base to the apex (or with the latter portion slightly thickened), 

 and consisting of from 13 to 15 joints. The males with one joint 

 more to the antennae than the females. Palpi long; the maxillary 

 usually 4-jointcd, and the labial 3-jointed. Ovipositor lodged in a 

 groove on the under side of the body. 



Latreille enumerates but three genera belonging to this family. 

 Those which have the antennas filiform, the abdomen much com- 

 pressed, the radial cell of the wing loug aud narrow, the two brachials 

 very distinct, and the first two cubitals small, constitute the genus 

 Jbalia. 



The species of the next genus (Fiyitea) have the abdomen thickened 

 and rounded above, the antennae gradually thickened towards the 

 apex, but one brachial cell, the radial very distant from the apex of 

 the wing, and the second cubital wanting. 



In the genus Cynips the abdomen is similar to the last, but the 

 antennae are filiform ; there are three cubital cells to the wing, the 

 first of which is large ; the radial is elongated, and there is but one 

 complete cell at the base of the wing. [GALLS.] 



GALLI'N^E, Gallinaceous Birds, the fifth order of the class Aves, 

 according to Linnaeus, who thus characterises it : Bill (a reaping 

 sickle, ' Harpa colligens') convex ; tho upper mandible arched over the 

 lower ; nostrils over arched by a cartilaginous membrane. Feet 

 formed for running ; the toes rough below. Body sebaceous, mus- 

 cular, delicate (purum). Food : grain collected on the earth and 

 macerated in the crop (ingluvies). Nest artless and placed on the 



