RUBIACEAE (MADDER FAMILY) 397 



roots, though much inferior to the true Madder, are sometimes 

 used for the production of a red dye. 



Stems numerous, tufted, three to ten inches long, some erect 

 and some spreading on the ground, very slender, square, and 

 rough-hairy on the angles. Leaves about a 

 half-inch long, narrow, rough-edged, sharp- 

 pointed, sessile, and whorled in fours, fives, or 

 sixes. Flowers very small, in dense terminal 

 clusters or heads, surrounded by an involucral 

 whorl of spiny-pointed, leaf-like bracts ; they 

 are blue (sometimes pink), the corollas fun- 

 nel-shaped, with four or five spreading lobes, 

 and as many stamens as lobes, inserted on 

 the tube, the anthers exserted ; style two- 

 parted at summit. Ovary below the flower, 

 two-celled and two-seeded, forming twin car- 

 pels which are indehiscent and crowned by 

 the persistent, rough-hairy, four- to six-lobed 

 calyx. (Fig. 276.) 



Means of control 



Clover fields and meadows infested with FIG. 276. Blue 



this weed should be mowed very early, before Fi * ld Madde ^ ( sher - 

 , . P j T> 1 , arena arvensis). X f. 



the formation of seed. Being annual, it can 



thus be driven out in a year or two, if seeds are not allowed to 

 foul the ground. 



GOOSE-GRASS, OR CLEAVERS 

 Galium Aparlne, L. 



Other English names: Scratch Grass, Grip Grass, Cling Rascal, 



Catchweed, Hedgeburs, Sweethearts. 

 Native. Annual. Propagates by seeds. 

 Time of bloom : May to September. 

 Seed-time: July to November. 



Range : New Brunswick to Alaska, southward to Florida and Texas. 

 Habitat : Rich soil ; fence rows and thickets. 



A worthless weed, and sometimes a serious pest to the wool- 

 grower, who finds the quality of his fleeces cheapened by its tiny 

 burs. 



