Chapter XXXVIII. 



From Bedstraws to Lobelias. 



The thirty-third order includes the madder family, to which 

 the exotic coffee and cinchona plants belong. From the latter 

 quinine is manufactured. The Minnesota species are all herbs 

 but one the button-bush and include about ten kinds of 

 bedstraw, the partridgeberry and two Houstonias. In addition 

 to the madders, the thirty-third order includes the honeysuckle 

 family, with the honeysuckles, twinflowers, snow-berries, high 

 bush cranberries, arrowwoods, elders and horse-gentians; the 

 adoxa family, with a single small herb known as the musk crow- 

 foot or moschatel; and the valerian family, with two valerians 

 and two lamb-lettuces. The teazel family, to which the fuller' s- 

 teazel belongs, is not represented in Minnesota. 



Bedstraws. Of the madder family the little bedstraws of the 

 woods are well-known forms. Their stems are four-sided, their 

 leaves are apparently in whorls and are mostly slender or wil- 

 low-shaped. The stems are armed with recurved barbs, so that 

 they cling to one's clothing. The flowers are small, white and 

 clustered in flat-topped cymes, often aggregated in com- 

 pound panicles. Each flower exhibits a four-lobed calyx and 

 a four-lobed corolla, upon which four stamens are borne in 

 the notches. The fruit consists of two nutlets, side by side, 

 and in each of them a single seed is formed. The different 

 kinds of bedstraw are distinguished by the character of the 

 nutlets, the color of the flowers, and a number of minute pecul- 

 iarities which can scarcely be recognized without the use of a 

 microscope. Most of the Minnesota varieties have fruits pro- 

 vided w r ith hooks, but in some the fruits are quite smooth. 

 The slender, trailing, clinging stem, whorled leaves, four-lobed 

 flowers and two-nutleted fruits will serve to identify these 

 plants. One variety is a common prairie flower. 



