60 TETRANDRIA — MONOGYNTA. [Galium. 



4 in a wlioil ovate hairy, flowers polygamous clustered lateral, 

 peduncles 2-leaved. E. Bot. t. 143. 



Hedge-banks and thickets, common. Fl. May, June. If. 



** Fruit glabrous. Flowers white. 



8. G. palustre, L. {ivhite water Bed-straw); leaves 4—6 in a 

 whorl oblongo-lanceolate obtuse tapering at the base, and as well 

 as the lax spreading branched stem, more or less rough. Hook. 

 Scot. i. p. 51. — a. stem and leaves smoothish. G. palustre, E. 

 Bot. t. 1857.— /S. nerves at the back and margins of the leaves 

 and angles of the stem, distinctly rough with mostly reflexed 

 prickles. G. Witheringii, E. Bot. t. 2206. 



Sides of ditches, lakes and rivulets. Fl. July. V- •— " The transition 

 from the smooth to the rough state of this plant may be observed on the 

 borders of pools, and it is onlv in very wet spots that it corresponds 

 with the description in E. Fl. of G. palustre. In dry situations, especially 

 by road-sides (in Wales) where the earth has been recently disturbed (in 

 the neighbourhood of marshes) it assumes the state of G. Witheringii, 

 but is very luxuriant and branched. In marshes not liable to be over- 

 flowed, and in boggy ground, it is in every respect like that described in 

 E. Fl. under G. Witheringii:' Wilson MSS. The plant turns blackish 

 in drying ; and the upper leaves are generally of unequal size. 



4. G. uliginosum, L. (rough marsh Bed-straio) ; leaves 6 in a 

 whorl lanceolate mucronate their margins and the stem rough 

 with reflexed prickles. E. Bot. t. 1972. 



Wet meadows and sides of ditches. Fl. Aug. If .— Disdnguished by 

 the lanceolate leaves, tapering at the base, and shortly acuminated at 

 their points into a mucro. Bristles on the plant all reflexed. 



5. G. saxdtile, L. {smooth heath Bed-straw) ; leaves 6 in a 

 whorl obovate mucronate, stem very much branched prostrate 

 smooth. E. Bot. t. 815. 



Heathy spots and hilly and mountainous pastures, abundant, in some 

 places the ground being almost white with it during summer. Fl. June — 

 Aug. V--— Plant small, turning almost black in drying. Leaves often 

 rough at the margins, of a thickish and rather soft texture. Fruit, as 

 Sir J. E. Smith well observes, becoming reddish after the corollas fall, 

 and then, when fertile, minutely granulated on the surface. j 



6. G. erectum, Huds. (upright Bed-straw); leaves about 8 in a 

 whorl lanceolate mucronate their margins rough with prickles 

 pointing forward, panicle much branched, stem glabrous flaccid, 

 segments of the corolla mucronato-acuminate. E. Bot. t. 2067. 

 — /3. leaves downy beneath. 



Hedges and pastures, not common. In Norfolk ; at Portslade, Sussex, 

 and near Cambridge. Portobello, near Edinburgh. — fo. near Plymouth. 

 Fl. June, July. If. — " Differs from G. idiginosmn by the edges and ad- 

 joining portion of the disk of the leaves above, bearing a double row of 

 hooked prickles all pointing forward, in its larger size, stouter habit, 

 glaucous hue, and larger, less obovate, leaves. The Jiowers are larger, 

 far more numerous and crowded into dense, terminal compound panicles ; 

 each segment of the corolla tipped with an awn-like point. Sm. in E. Fl. 

 — Scarcely any genus requires illustration more than Galium. The pre- 



