Galium. RUBIAC&& 283 



A large genus, dispersed through all temperate regions. When the uppermost leaves are re- 

 duced to a single pair, they occasionally show some rudiments of the proper stipules of the order. 

 In several Californian species the flowers are dioecious. The species, being rather numerous, 

 may be more readily determined by the aid of the following artificial key. 



Leaves mostly in whorls of eight. 4. G. APARINE. 



Leaves all in sixes : fruit not hairy. 5. G. ASPERRIMUM. 



Leaves in fives and sixes : fruit hairy. 6. G. TUIFLORUM. 



Leaves mostly in fives or sixes on the stem, in fours on the branches. 7. G. TRIFIDUM. 

 Leaves in fours, or some only in pairs. 

 Fruit berry-like, not hairy. 



Low, hispid : leaves ovate : root fibrous. 1- G. CALIFORNICUM. 



Taller, with thick or woody root : leaves small, narrow. 2. G. NUTTALLII. 



Perennial-tufted, dwarf : tiowers perfect, white : leaves crowded, awl- 

 shaped. 14. G. ANDUEWSII. 

 Fruit dry. 



Low annual : leaves lanceolate : flowers perfect, white. 3. G. BIFOLIUM. 



Perennials, with dull purple flowers. 



Leaves oblong-linear, minutely hirsute or nearly glabrous. 8. G. BOLANDERI. 



Leaves ovate or oblong, cinereous-pubescent. 9. G. PUBENS. 



Perennial herb, erect, wliite-flowered : leaves 3-nerved, lanceolate. 10. G. BOREALE. 

 Perennial, or woody at base : flowers dull yellowisa or whitish, dioe- 

 cious : fruit long-hairy. 



Tall : leaves linear. 11- G. ANGUSTIFOLIUM. 



Low : leaves ovate or broadly lanceolate : fruit very long-haired. 



Glabrous and smooth. 12. G. BLOOMERI. 



Cinereous- puberulent. 13. G. MULTIFLORUM. 



1. Fruit berry-like at maturity, as in Madder. EELBUNIUM, Endl., Benth. & Hook. 



1. G. Californicum, Hook. & Am. Low, much branched from an annual (1) 

 reddish fibrous root, hispid with widely spreading stiff hairs : leaves in fours, thin- 

 nish, ovate and ovate-lanceolate, cuspidately acute or mucronate : flowers dioeciously 

 polygamous ; the fertile ones solitary on short naked peduncles at the end of the 

 branches or on upper forks, recurved in fruit ; the sterile ones terminal in threes : 

 corolla yellowish ; its lobes ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, glabrous : fruit purple, gla- 

 brous or nearly so. Bot. Beech, p. 349 ; Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 20, excl. var. 



Common from San Francisco southward towards the coast. The larger forms with less rigid 

 hairiness resemble the S. American G. Relbun (and like it are apt to have a minutely hirsute 

 or pubescent ovary) ; but that is well distinguished by a small 4-leaved involucel at the apex of 

 the peduncle, within which the flower is sessile. 



2. G. Nuttallii, Gray. Stem rising from a thick and firm or woody root or 

 rootstock, 1 to 3 feet high, or climbing higher on bushes, and much branching : 

 branchlets minutely aculeolate-scabrous on the angles : leaves in fours or the upper- 

 most often only in pairs (3 to 5 or on branchlets only 2 or 3 lines long), thickish, 

 varying from ovate-oblong to linear-lanceolate, mostly smooth except the spinulose- 

 ciliate margins : flowers solitary, minute : lobes of the white corolla ovate : pedicels 

 naked, reflexed in fruit : ovary glabrous : fruit small, decidedly baccate. PL 

 "Wright, i. 80, in note. G. suffruticosum, Nutt. in Torr. & Gray, 1. c. 



Hills and low grounds, Marin Co. to San Diego. Apparently varies greatly. Often "forms 

 thickets," or is supported on shrubs, in the manner of the eastern G. asprellum. 



2. Fruit dry at maturity. 

 * Annuals : fruit minutely hispid with hooked bristles : flowers perfect. 



3. G-. bifolium, Watson. Smooth and glabrous, small (3 to 6 inches high), at 

 length branched : leaves in depauperate specimens only a single pair, with bases 

 connected by a scarious stipular line ; in vigorous specimens 4 in the whorls, lance- 

 olate, the alternate pair (answering to stipules) from half to three quarters smaller : 

 peduncles solitary, lateral and terminal, naked, 1 -flowered, about equalling the 

 leaves when in fruit, spreading : corolla minute, white : fruit recurved on the apex 

 of the peduncle. Bot. King. 134, t. 14, fig. 8. 



