GAL 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



GAL 



593 



late, quite entire, awned; stems angular, decumbent; root 

 small, very slender, creeping ; panicles terminating, and 

 axillary, short; peduncles branched, not very leafy, bifid or 

 trifid ; corolla white ; style very deeply cloven ; seeds minute, 

 round, cloven. Haller informs us, that it is common by the 

 way-sides, in corn-fields, and stony parts of France, Ger- 

 many, and Switzerland : it is also found in the Alps, where 

 it becomes a more humble creeping plant. 



25. Galium Hierosolymitanum. Leaves in tens, lanceo- 

 late-linear; umbels fastigiate. Native of Palestine. 



26. Galium Glaucum ; Glaucous Ladies' Bedstraw. 

 Leaves linear; peduncles dichotomous ; stem smooth and 

 even; root perennial, somewhat creeping, branched. Stems 

 slender, weak, prostrate, glossy; leaves five or six in a whorl, 

 glossy, glaucous underneath, hardly scabrous on the edge, 

 the lower ones turned back : flowers white, in subtrifid small 

 umbels. This plant flowers in our gardens from June to Sep- 

 tember, and is a native of mountain woods, and fissures of 

 rocks, in the south of Europe, Tartary, and Siberia. 



27. Galium Cinereum. Leaves in sixes, linear, rigid, 

 serrate, prickly; stems smooth, flexuose, filiform, somewhat 

 woody at bottom ; branchlets upright, leafless, with about 

 three flowers. Perennial. This is an elegant species, cover- 

 ed with a glaucous bloom : when this bloom is wiped off, the 

 plant is of a shining, not a dark green. The stems are ob- 

 scurely quadrangular; the leaves of a long elliptic form, wider 

 at the end, and terminating in a remarkable white prickle. A 

 panicle of flowers terminates the stem and branches, the ex- 

 treme peduncles bearing usually three flowers, one of which 

 is abortive; seeds large, dirty white, smooth, but, when full 

 ripe, wrinkled. Native of Piedmont and Dauphiny. 



28. Galium Teniiifolium. Leaves six to eight, linear,, 

 grooved, rigid, slightly and finely serrate, with a small 

 prickle at the end ; stems diffusely branched, each branch 

 terminated by a panicle; peduncles two or three flowered. 

 Perennial. The peduncles are very much branched, capillary, 

 and longer than the leaf, divaricate; segments of the corolla 

 large, white, and awned; seeds slightly wrinkled, but neither 

 hairy nor rough, the colour of them black. Native of the 

 county of Nice, Provence, and Dauphiny. 



29. Galium Purpnreum; Purple Ladies' Bedstraw. Leaves 

 linear-bristle-shaped ; peduncles capillary, longer than the 

 leaves ; stem upright, very much branched, and so leafy 

 that the leaves can hardly be numbered. They are usually in 

 eights, smooth, and keeled underneath; brunches ascending, 

 and from their axils innumerable ; peduncles above the leaves 

 upright, sustaining few flowers ; these and the stems are dark 

 purple. The roots will dye red. Perennial. It is found near 

 Ripa and Chiavenna; by Lago Lugano; and in the counties 

 of Nice and Montserrat. 



30. Galium Rubrum; Red Ladies' Bedstraw. Leaves 

 linear, patulous; peduncles very short; root perennial, 

 slender; stems slender, prostrate, nearly a foot in length, 

 rough with small prickles. The whole plant is of a pale 

 green ; the flowers, which are very small, are of a pale 

 purple colour, or white, disposed in panicles at the end of 

 the stem and branches. It flowers in July and August; and 

 is a native of the Palatinate, Silesia, Carniola, and Italy. 



* With a hispid Fruit. 



31. Galium Boreale; Cross-leaved Ladies' Bedstraw. 

 Leaves in fours, lanceolate, three-nerved, smooth ; stem up- 

 right; root perennial, long, slender, dark purple. Stems a 

 foot or eighteen inches in height, obscurely quadrangular, 

 stout, much branching at the top, the lower part smooth, the 

 upper slightly hairy; flowers copious, in a terminating pani- 

 cle, formed oi' racemes orcorymbs, growing- gradually smaller; 



vol.. i. 50. 



corolla white, with ovate segments ; styles two ; fruit covered 

 with long, soft, whitish hairs, slightly incrirved upwards. 

 This is one of the species, the roots of which afford a beauti- 

 ful red dye. The process is thus described by Haller: The 

 roots are gathered in spring, they are ground with malt-dust, 

 and infused in small beer, which then constitutes the dye 

 in which the macerated woollen yarn is boiled, after having; 

 been previously dyed yellow in a decoction of Birch leaves. 

 It flowers in July and August: and is a native of Lapland, 

 Sweden, Silesia, Switzerland, Carniola, and various parts of 

 Britain : it is found in the mountains of Westmoreland and 

 Wales ; near Pooley bridge, by Ullswater : and near the ferry 

 at Winandermere, in Cumberland ; in some parts of the county 

 of Durham ; and on the rocks near the sides of many lakes 

 and rivers in Scotland. 



32. Galium Pilosum ; Hairy Ladies' Bedstraw. Leaves 

 in fours, nearly oval, hairy, nerveless; seeds hairy. It 

 flowers in June and July, is perennial ; and a native of North 

 America. 



33. Galium Rotundifolium ; Round-leaved Ladies' Bed- 

 straw. Leaves in fours, ovate, obtuse, terminating in a very 

 short prickle, ciliate about the edge, three-nerved ; root per- 

 ennial, slender, creeping, cinnamon-coloured. Stem pro- 

 cumbent, weak, a foot long, slightly grooved ; branches 

 alternate, green at bottom, pubescent, with very short 

 hairs, and leafy, frequently purplish above, naked, and 

 jointed ; peduncles naked, an inch or two in length, bifid, 

 seldom trifid, diverging, each terminating in a solitary 

 flower, and filiform; corolla white; seeds white, bearded 

 with long hairs. It flowers in July and August. Native of 

 Silesia, Switzerland, Savoy, Austria, &c. 



34. Galium Maritimum; Sea Ladies' Bedstraw. Leaves 

 in fours, hispid ; peduncles one-flowered ; fruits villose ; 

 root perennial ; stem brachiate, rough with hairs, very much 

 branched, the last branches dichotomous ; peduncles capil- 

 lary, shorter than the leaves, usually one-flowered, seldom 

 bifid ; flowers small. Native of the Levant, and probably 

 of Montpellier, the Pyrenees, and the county of Nice. 



35. Galium Bermudiamim. Leaves in fours, linear, ob- 

 tuse; branches very much subdivided ; whorls of leaves very 

 distant; flowers dark purple; seed lanuginose. Native of 

 Virginia and Maryland. 



36. Galium Gisecum ; Candia Ladies' Bedstraw, Leaves 

 about six, linear-lanceolate ; stems woody; the whole plant 

 rough with hairs; peduncles longer; the leaves subdivided, 

 forming a kind of umbel of few flowers, capillary. Native 

 of the islands of the Archipelago. 



37. Galium Aparine ; Common Rough Ladies' Bedstraw, 

 Cleavers, or Goose-grass. Leaves in eights, lanceolate ; 

 keels scabrous, with prickles pointing backwards; joints 

 villose ; root annual ; stem four feet high or more, weak, 

 and supporting itself on other plants, brittle, jointed, the 

 joints villose at the base; the angles are set with pellucid 

 prickles, pointing downwards; it is very branched, and the 

 branches are opposite; flowers few and small, on rough pe- 

 duncles ; calix none ; corolla whitish, scarcely longer than the 

 germen, divided to the base into four ovate-acute segments. 

 This plant is reckoned to purify the blood, and is therefore 

 a common ingredient in spring broth. The expressed juice 

 of the herb, taken to the amount of four ounces, or a quarter 

 of a pint, night and morning, during several weeks, is very 

 efficacious in removing many of those cutaneous eruptions, 

 which are commonly, though improperly, called scorbutic. 

 It has been much celebrated in scrofulous and cancerous 

 sores ; but it must be confessed, that the experiments made 

 in our hospitals have not confirmed its celebrity. The juice 



7 M 



