

MADDER. 97 



stems are annual, quadrangular, slender, procumbent, diffuse, and 

 from two to three feet in length ; their angles covered with short, 

 rough, hooked points. The leaves are large, sessile, elliptical, 

 lanceolate, of a shining cinereous green colour, and are arranged 

 in whorls of four, five, or six together, at each joint of the stem ; 

 their margin and nerves covered with asperities. The flowers are 

 disposed in small axillary and terminal panicles, upon branched 

 peduncles. The calyx is small, and divided at the margin into 

 four nearly obsolete teeth. The corolla is of a yellow colour, 

 sub-campanulate, divided at the limb into four or five deep, ovate, 

 acute segments. The stamens are equal in number to the corolline 

 segments ; the filaments short, tipped with elliptical anthers. The 

 germen is two-lobed, nearly globose, with two short, slender styles, 

 each terminated by a globose capitate stigma. The fruit is nearly 

 globose, didymous, consisting of two bodies (mericarps), united 

 by their inner face, of a dark-purple colour, juicy, each containing 

 a single, ovate-globose seed, but one of them is generally abortive. 

 Plate 31, fig. I; (a) the root; (6) entire flower; (c) corolla 

 opened to show the stamens ; (d) pistil ; (e) fruit. 



This plant is a native of the Levant, the South of Europe, 

 Caucasus, &c, and was cultivated in this country prior to the time 

 of Gerard. It flowers in May and June. 



There can be little doubt of this species of Madder being iden- 

 tical with the epsvQpofiavov of Dioscorides * and of the other Greek 

 writers. It was so called from spsvQo$, red, in allusion to the 

 colouring property of the roots ; from which it has also obtained 

 the appellation Rubia, from ruber, red. 



Madder is extensively cultivated for the sake of its roots, which 

 afford a valuable dye. This country is supplied chiefly from 

 Holland and Flanders, and in part from France, Italy, and 

 Turkey. Its culture has been attempted at different times in 

 Britain, when our commerce with the Dutch was interrupted by 

 political dissensions. The result of the trial has been, that it may 

 be cultivated here to as great perfection as in any other country, 

 but not at so low a price. f 



* Mat. Med. lib. iii. c. 160. 



t For an account of the method of cultivating Madder, see Miller's 

 Dictionary, art. Rubia.— Method of cultivating Madder, 4to. 1758, by 

 Miller. — Don's System of Gardening and Botany, vol. iii. p. 643. 

 VOL. II. H 



