368 



RUBIACEAE. 



2. Galium pilosum Ait. 

 Hairy Bedstraw. (Fig. 401.) 

 Perennial, hirsute-pubescent; 

 stems ascending, branched, 1°- 

 2^° long. Leaves in 4 's, oval 

 or oval-ovate, punctate, 1-nerved, 

 obtuse, or obscurely 3-nerved, at 

 the base, mucronulate, i'-l' 

 long, 3 "-5" wide, the lower 

 usually smaller ; peduncles 

 axillary and terminal; cymes 

 numerous, few-flowered ; pedi- 

 cels l"-6" long, flowers yellow- 

 ish purple ; fruit densely hispid, 

 nearly 2" in diameter. [G. 

 ruhrum of Lefroy?] 



Collected somewhere in Ber- 

 muda by Baldwin, in the year 

 1815 as appears from specimens 

 preserved in the herbarium of the 

 Academy of Natural Sciences of 

 Philadelphia, but not certainly 

 found here by others. Presumably 

 native. Eastern United States. 

 Barren specimens of a Galium 

 found along the South Shore 

 Road, near Camden, in 1914, may 

 be this species. 

 3. Galium bermudense L. 



Bermuda Bedstraw^. Heal- soon. 

 (Fig. 402.) Perennial, much 



branched, hirsute, hispid or nearly 



glabrous, 6'-2° high. Leaves in 



4's, 1-nerved, oval, mucronate, 



rather thick, 3"-10" long, IV'- 



4" wide, the margins more or less 



revolute in drying; flowers few, 



terminating the branchlets, white ; 



pedicels 3"-4" long, rather stout, 



becoming deflexed in fruit; fruit 



fleshy, minutely pubescent, about 



2" broad. [G. Jiispidulum Michx. ; 



G. uniflorum of Lefroy, of Hems- 

 ley and of H. B. Small; G, hijpo- 



carpium of Reade; EeWiinium 



hypocarpium of Moore.] 



Common on hillsides. Native. 

 Southeastern United States and Ba- 

 hamas. Flowers from spring to 

 autumn. Its seed presumably trans- 

 ported to Bermuda by a bird. 



The plant is first recorded by Plunkenet, in his " Almagestum Botanicum " on 

 page 324, and illustrated on his plate 2^8, figure 6, as " Rubia tetraphyllos glabra, 

 latiore folio, bermudensis, seminibus binis atropurpureis " he received it from Dr. 

 Petiver. 



10. SHERARDIA [Dill.] L. 



Slender annual procumbent or diffuse herbs, with verticillate spiny-pointed 



leaves, and small nearly sessile pink or blue flowers, in involucrate heads. 



Calyx-tube ovoid, its limb 4-6-lobed, the lobes lanceolate, persistent. Corolla 



