GOOSE-GKASS. 



Galium Aparine. Nat. Ord., Rubiacea. 



SCATTERED as it is in almost 

 every neglected garden, on 

 every piece of waste ground* 

 or rambling over every hedge, 

 we may be tolerably certain 

 of finding the plant here 

 figured. Though its stems 

 are very slender and feeble- 

 looking, they have great 

 roughness and power of grip, 

 and by this means sustain 

 themselves amongst other 

 herbage, and run for many 

 feet amongst the denizens of 

 the hedgerow. Stem and 

 eaves alike are closely covered 

 with numerous small hooks, 

 and both these and the fruits 

 cling with tenacity to anything with which they come in 

 contact. Any one who has brushed along the hedgerows 

 while botanising or blackberrying will be familiar with 

 the look of the numerous fruits of the goose-grass that 

 will be found attached to the dress; the old Greeks, 

 noticing this, ascribed to the plant a peculiar fondness 

 for mankind, and called it the Philanthropon. 



