102 FAMILIAR WILL FLOWERS. 



The name goose-grass is bestowed upon the present 

 species because geese have a great partiality for it, though 

 horses, sheep, and cows seem equally fond of it. It is a 

 plant of many names; one frequently hears it called cleavers, 

 or clivers, from its habit of cleaving to other things for 

 support, while in Scotland it is often known as grip-grass, 

 a name that as clearly as the others carries its meaning on 

 its face. It has, of course, no real connection with the 

 grasses, but our forefathers did not go in for nice 

 distinctions, and called many another lowly herb a grass 

 on no better grounds. Another old popular name for the 

 plant is the catch-weed ; it is sometimes called the tongue- 

 bleed, too : any one who will endeavour to draw a small 

 portion of the plant across his mouth will at once see why. 

 A very old name, Anglo-Saxon in its origin, is the harriff, 

 a word compounded of two others, and signifying hedge- 

 robber. The burdock, another plant with clinging fruits, 

 at one time shared this name with it ; the name arose, of 

 course, in each case, from the habit the plant has of laying 

 hold on any passing substance. Other names are goose- 

 bill, loveman, and scratch weed. 



The goose-grass is an annual; the roots are long 

 and fibrous, the stems quadrangular, weak, brittle, and 

 jointed, having the hooks to which we have already referred 

 placed along the lines of the four angles, freely branch- 

 ing, and attaining at times to a length of seven or eight 

 feet. The lateral branches are thrown off in pairs. The 

 leaves grow in rings, varying in number from six to nine. 

 We had the curiosity to count one hundred of these rings, 

 and found that thirteen of them were composed of six 

 leaves, thirty-eight had seven leaves, while no fewer than 

 forty-one were made up of eight leaves each, and the 



