186 GALIUM. [CLASS iv. ORDER j. 



Root small, fibrous. Stems several, slender, weak, square, the angles 

 rough, with reflexed prickles. Leaves in numerous whorls of about 

 eight, lanceolate ; the margins, and sometimes the midrib, rough, with 

 reflexed prickles, which character, together with the granulated, not 

 tuberculated fruit, distinguishes it from the preceding species, for which 

 it appears to have been mistaken. 



Habitat. Dry fields in England. Isle of Thanet ; in Surrey ; and 

 near Stamford, Lincolnshire Hudson. Oxfordshire, Yorkshire, Glou- 

 cestershire, Norfolk, Suffolk Rev. G. JR. Leathes. Fields near Caris- 

 brook, Isle of Wight Turner and Borrer. 



Annual ; flowering in July. 



This and the following species, Professor Henslow thinks it probable, 

 have been introduced by the agency of man. 



14. G. spu'rium, Linn. (Fig. 235.) smooth-fruited Corn Bed-strait: 

 Leaves about eight in a whorl, lanceolate, their margins as well as 

 the stem rough with reflexed prickles ; flower-stalks axillary, 

 many-flowered ; fruit smooth, spreading. 



English Botany, t. 1871. English Flora, vol. i. p. 206. Lindley, 

 Synopsis, p. 129. Hooker, British Flora, vol. i. p. 68. 



Root small, fibrous. Stem spreading, branched, square, its angles 

 rough with reflexed prickles, as well as the margins and midribs of the 

 lanceolate leaves, which are in whorls of from six to nine ; the point of 

 each is pale, and terminated by a rather long bristle. Inflorescence in 

 axillary clusters ; the peduncles about the length of the leaves, slender, 

 rough, and bearing from six to eight small yellowish flowers, and one 

 or two small bractece. Fruit of two small, brown, kidney-shaped lobes, 

 having a central vacancy between them, quite smooth and even, erect 

 or spreading, never recurved. 



Habitat. Corn-fields, near Forfar, rare Mr. G. Don. 



Annual ; flowering in July. 



So nearly allied is this plant, both in habit and appearance, except 

 in the fruit, to the following species, as to induce Sprengel to assert 

 that they are one and the same. 



*** Fruit bristly. Flowers white. 



15. G. Apari'ne, Linn. (Fig. 236.) Goose-grass, or Cleavers. Leaves 

 from six to eight in a whorl, lanceolate, bristly; the margins, mid- 

 rib, and angles of the stem rough with reflexed prickles ; flower- 

 stalks axillary, few-flowered. 



English Botany, t. 816. English Flora, vol. i. p. 210. Liudley, 

 Synopsis, p. 130. Hooker, British Flora, vol. i. p. 68. 



-Root fibrous. Stem much branched and spreading, adhering to other 

 plants near which it grows, often from four to six feet long, square and 

 shining, its angles more or less beset with sharp, reflexv.l, hooked 



