Galium. RUBIACE^. 309 



Order LII. RUBIACEiE. Juss. The Madder Tribe. 



Tube of the calyx adherent to the o\'ary, or rarely partly or almost completely 

 free ; the limb mostly 4 - 5-cleft or toothed, rarely obsolete. Corolla with as 

 many lobes as there are divisions to the calyx. Stamens as many as the lobes 

 of the corolla, and alternate with them. Fruit various. Embrvo straight or 

 slightly curved, in the axis or at the extremity of horny albumen. — Trees, 

 shrubs or often herbs ; the leaves either in whorls, or opposite and furnished 

 with stipules. Flowers regular, 



^ Suborder I. Stellate, i?. Brown. 



Leaves in whorls ; all but one pair generally supposed to take the place of 

 stipules, and only to be distinguished from true leaves by their never bearing 

 buds in their axils. ^Estivation of the corolla valvate. Ovary wholly coherent 

 with the tube of the calyx. Fruit consisting of two united indehiscent (dry 



■ or baccate) one-seeded carpels. — Herbs or rarely sufTrutescent plants. 



1. GALIUM. Linn.; Endl. gen. 3110. BEDSTRAW. cleavers. 



[Named from the Greek, gala, milk ; one of the species having been used to curdle milk.] 



Calyx-Uibe ovate-globose or oblong ; the limb obsolete. Corolla rotate, 4- (rarely 3-) parted. 

 Stamens as many as the lobes of the corolla, short. Styles 2, united at the base : stigmas 

 globose. Fruit didymous, dry or sometimes fleshy, separable when ripe into 2 indehiscent 

 globose one-seeded carpels. Albumen horny. — Herbaceous or very rarely sufl'rutescent 

 plants, v?ith square stems ; the roots frequently containing a coloring matter. Flowers 

 small, axillary or terminal, in small cymes (which are often paniculate) or rarely solitary. 



^ 1. Aparine, DC. Root annual. 

 1. Galium Aparine. Common Cleavers, or Goose-grass. 



Stem weak, branching, retrorsely aculeate-hispid, hairy aboiU the joints ; leaves mostly 

 eight in a whorl, linear-oblanceolate, mucronate, the margin and keel aculeolate ; peduncles 

 elongated, axillary, 1 - 2-flovi'cred ; fruit large, very hispid with hooked prickles. — Linn, 

 sp. I. p. 108 ; Engl. hot. 816 ; Pursh, fl. 1. p. 103; Torr. fl. \. p. 166 ; Bigcl. fl. Bost. 

 p. 57; DC. prodr. 4. p. 608 ; Hook. fl. Bor.-Am. 1. p. 290 ; Bech, hot. p. 162 ; Darlingt 

 fl. Cest. p. 100 ; Torr. 4- Gr. fl. N. Am. 2. p. 20. 



