594 



GAL 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



GAR 



of the stem and leaves is acknowledged nevertheless to be 

 of a cooling nature ; it increases the urinary discharge, and 

 is therefore esteemed in the jaundice, dropsy, suppression 

 of urine, gravel, and other disorders that arise from ob- 

 structions of the viscera. Linneus says, that this plant is 

 very apt to infest crops of peas ; and that the Swedes use the 

 stalks as a filter, to strain their milk through. Dioscorides 

 observes, that the same use was made of it in his time ; and 

 it certainly is not a bad substitute, to take hairs out of the 

 milk, where a sieve is not at hand. The seeds have been 

 used instead of coffee. The roots, like most others of this 

 genus, will dye red ; and are found to tinge the bones of the 

 birds that eat them, of that colour. As it is an annual weed, 

 it is easily destroyed, if it be cut or plucked up early, for it 

 begins to seed in June. It is common in hedges and culti- 

 vated grounds. The well-known property of adhering to 

 whatever it comes in contact with, has given this plant the 

 names of Cleavers, Clevers, Clivers, and Catchweed, or Scratch- 

 weed; from the same idea, it also derived the more elegant 

 appellation of philanthrophon, among the Greeks and Ro- 

 mans ; from its roughness, it has been called Hariff, or rather 

 Hairough ; and from being a favourite food or medicine of 

 geese, Goose-grass, Goose-share, and Gosling-weed. 



38. Galium Parisiense. Leaves linear, in sevens; peduncles 

 two-flowered ; root annual ; stems a foot high, weak, sca- 

 brous backwards ; flowering-branches opposite, shorter; pe- 

 duncles naked, two or three flowered ; corollas yellow, small. 



39. Galium Megalospermum ; Large-seeded Ladies' Bed- 

 straw. Leaves in fives, elliptic, acuminate, finely serrate ; 

 peduncles two-flowered ; fruits large, wrinkled. This plant 

 forms a tuft ; the stems do not exceed a finger's length ; 

 branches alternate ; from the last whorl they produce two- 

 flowered peduncles ; flowers pale yellow ; fruits dirty white. 

 Native of Monte Cenisio. 



40. Galium Saccharatum. Supposed to be a variety of the 

 37th species. Ray says, the leaves are smooth, and fruits 

 warted, but not lappacious or tenacious. Native country 

 unknown. 



41. Galium Umbrosum. Native of Zealand. 



42. Galium Viscosum ; Clammy Ladies' Bedstraw. Lower 

 leaves in fours, obovate ; upper ones in sixes, linear-lanceo- 

 late, serrate ; keel and stem smooth ; root annual ; stems se- 

 veral, ascending, a finger or a hand in height, smooth, even, 

 made four-cornered by a pale decurrent line, branched from 

 all the lower axils, ending at length towards the top in oppo- 

 site peduncles, an inch long. In a rich soil, the stems are 

 frequently a span high, and spreading. Corolla yellowish, 

 white ; seeds minute, viscid. Native of the mountains of 

 Tunis. 



43. Galium Paschale. Leaves in nines, or thereabouts, 

 linear-lanceolate, rugged backwards ; peduncles axillary, 

 elongated, trichotomous ; stems weak, a foot and a half high 

 or more, simple, smooth, even. The whorls are very remote, 

 eight or nine-leaved ; the leaves an inch and a half long, mu- 

 cronate, smooth, even, except at the edge; the seeds minute. 



44. Galium Aparinoides. Leaves in sixes, oblong, on the 

 edge and along the keel prickly backwards ; joints smooth ; 

 stem herbaceous, weak, half a foot high, prickly backwards 

 at the corners, with equal joints ; peduncles three, from the 

 ends of the branches, bifid. 



45. Galium Album; White Ladies' Bedstrati: Leaves in 

 eights, or thereabouts, oblong, unarmed, rugged on the edge ; 

 stem pubescent, even, the thickness of a pigeon's quill, erect, 

 branched, a cubit in height, unarmed, purplish-brown at the 

 joints ; the internodes a span in length ; fruit hispid. Na- 

 tive of Smyrna. 



46. Galium Microcarpum ; Small-fruited Ladies' Bed- 

 straw. Leaves in sixes, or thereabouts, lower ones oblong, 

 upper ones bristle-shaped ; peduncles trifid ; stems several, 

 filiform, a hand and sometimes a finger high, erect, rugged 

 at the corners below, but even above, branched at the base, 

 dichotomous or trichotomous at top; peduncles terminating, 

 capillary, in threes, bifid ; pedicels one-flowered ; two bristle- 

 shaped leaflets at the base of the peduncles; flowers purple; 

 fruit minute, whitish, hispid. Native of the dry mountains 

 of Tunis, and of Spain. 



47. Galium Tuberosutn. Leaves in fives, lanceolate ; pe- 

 duncles heaped, axillary; root a small, oblong, irregularly- 

 shaped, white, farinaceous tuber; stem herbaceous, a foot 

 and a half high, rufous, procumbent, simple; flowers white, 

 on longish, one-flowered, heaped, axillary peduncles ; fruit 

 roundish, rough. It is cultivated in China and Cochin-china 

 for the roots, which are reckoned very salutary, and are 

 eaten boiled, either whole or in meal. 



48. Galium Cruciatum ; Crosswort. Leaves in fours, 

 ovate, hairy; stem simple above, hairy; bunches of flowers 

 lateral, with two leaves; flowers polygamous; fruit smooth; 

 root perennial, creeping, slender. The flowers are yellow, 

 formed exactly like the Galiums, except that some are only 

 male, and some of the hermaphrodites are five-cleft ; the style 

 is deeply cloven ; and there are two germina, one of which is 

 generally abortive ; the fruit is globose, smooth, and sheltered 

 by the reflex leaves. Crosswort is often found about hedges 

 and in thickets, flowering early in the summer. 



Galopina ; a genus of the class Tetrandiia, order Digynia. 

 GEKERIC CHARACTER. Calix : none. Corolla: mono- 

 petalous, quadrifid, superior, revolute. Stamina: filamenta 

 four, capillary, long, inserted into the receptacle, deciduous. 

 Pistil: germen inferior; styles two, a little shorter than the 

 stamina, growing out ; stigmas simple. Pericarp : none. 

 Seeds: in pairs, naked, subglobular, muricate. ESSENTIAL 

 CHARACTER. Calix: none. Corolla: four-cleft. Seeds: 

 two, naked. The only known species is, 



1. Galopina Circeeoicles. Root annual ; stem herbaceous, 

 round, red, smooth, seldom branched, erect, but weak, about 

 two feet high ; blanches alternate, spreading, resembling the 

 stem ; leaves opposite, petioled, oblong, acute, entire, smooth, 

 pale underneath, an inch or a little more in length. In the 

 axils of the leaves are others similar, but smaller ; flowers ter- 

 minating, in a loose diffused panicle: peduncles and pedicels 

 opposite, capillary, smooth, with two opposite bristle-shaped 

 bractes. Native of the Cape of Good Hope. 



Garb. See Salix Babylonica. 



Garbanzo. See Cicer Arietinum, p. 298 ; to which we wish 

 to add, that the pulse called Garbanzo is highly esteemed ii 

 Spain, as fodder for cattle ; and at the table, in soups and 

 other dishes, but principally with that standard dish in all 

 families, the olio. The Garbanzo plant has a very inconsider- 

 able root, not penetrating far into the ground, and therefore 

 not impoverishing the soil; its branches are numerous, and 

 the large sort throws out shoots three feet long; it varies in 

 colour, white, reddish, or rather gray, and the seed of each 

 is of the same colour respectively. Each pod contains but one 

 seed, or at most two, not round, but rather pointed ; whence 

 it is compared to a sheep's head, and has the trivial name 

 arietinum. In Castile, they say that the best sort has the 

 surface wrinkled like the face of an old woman, the broad 

 back of a porter, and the bill of a parrot ; the colour also 

 should not be white, but a pale hue; and it should be light, 

 soft, and flat. This pulse does not succeed so well in the 

 hotter parts of Spain, as in the cold northern districts of 

 Fuente Sauco, Mentrida, and others. It is generally sown 



