MADDEB BED6TEAW. 151 



the berry was forbidden on pain of stripes. But public opinion 

 righted itself, and the Coffee became universally popular. 



Our Madder seems insignificant compared with these plants 

 of world-wide celebrity, but it, too, holds a highly respectable 

 position. The order is sometimes called the Starry tribe, 

 because the whorls of leaves are arranged in that form. 



The Dyer's Madder is a foreign species of great utility ; 

 quantities of it were being used in some dyeing works which I 

 visited near Manchester. The dye is extracted by a chemical 

 process. It was cultivated in Normandy during the middle 

 ages, and exported in large quantities. The French name for 

 Madder, Garance, is derived from Verancia, the name applied 

 by the Gauls, who, according to Strabo, cultivated it to some 

 extent. The most curious circumstance relating to the Madder 

 is, that if it is administered to any amimal in the state of 

 decoction, it penetrates the whole organism, dyeing the very 

 bones. 



Our own Madder (!Rubia peregrina, fig. 5), furnishes a red 

 colouring matter. Fanny found it on the banks of Loe Pool 

 amongst brushwood. It has four or five leaves in each "star ;" 

 they are bright and evergreen, with bristles round them. The 

 flowers are greenish-yellow, tubular above, and the segments of 

 the corolla spreading into a wheel shape. It grows abundantly 

 about Clevedon, as well as in Cornwall. 



The Bedstraw family, which succeeds the Madder, has also 

 the distinguishing mark of the Starry tribe ; its whorls contain 

 four, five, or six leaves. The flowers are wheel-shaped and 

 four-cleft. 



The Crosswort (Galium cruciatum), is common everywhere. 

 The flowers are arranged in small yellow clusters in the axils 

 of the leaves, which are broad, and of a pale green. The 

 strong scent of honey procures for it the title of " Honeywort " 

 in some districts. 



The Hough Marsh Bedstraw (G-. uliginosum), has six leaves 

 in a whorl, and very scattered clusters of clear white flowers 



