260 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



Asperttla odnrata. 



male and ordinarily trimerous. The ovary of the medial becomes a 

 fruit, one of the mericarps of which is frequently aborted ; its pedicel 

 is recurved so as to bear the fruit below, and is accompanied with the 



pedicels of the two male flowers, more or 

 less transformed to crests.^ There is also 

 in the Levant and Mediterranean region, 

 an exceptional Galium, type of a genus 

 Callipeltisj^ the hermaphrodite flowers of 

 which are axillary and ternate, pendent, 

 enclosed each in a cymbiform, membranous 

 bract, which grows and folds itself longi- 

 tudinally round the fruit, ordinarily re- 

 duced to a single fertile carpel, more 

 elongate than that of other species of 

 Galium and incurved at maturity like the 

 seed it encloses. We consider all these 

 types as so many sections ^ of one and the 

 same genus Ruhia, thus comprising some 

 two hundred^ species, belonging to all 

 regions of both worlds, chiefly to the 

 temperate portions. 



Asjjerula (fig. 231-234) has been dis- 

 tinguished from Ruhia and Galium chiefly 

 by the form of the corolla, which is tubular 

 or funnel-shaped instead of rotate or bell-shaped. This distinction 

 is somewhat artificial.^ The flowers have no true calyx. What has 



Fig. 23 1 . Floriferous brancli. 



1 There may be a fourth and a fifth male 

 flower continuing the cyme, but more or less 

 completely aborted. 



2 StEv. Ob.s. PL Ross. 69 (ex Mem. Mosc. vii. 

 275).— DC. Prodr. iv. 613.— Endl. Gen. n. 3099. 

 — B. H. Gen. ii. 148, n. 327.— Cucuilaria Buxb. 

 Cent. i. 13. 



( 1. Purubia. 



2. Bidymaea (H. f.). 



3. Galium (T.). 

 EuBiA ) ^' -^^^'^"^^"Wi (Endl.). 

 Sect 8 1 ^' ^^^^^^'>'}^(^C' (Boiss.). 



6. Cruclata (T.). 



7. VaUlautia (T.). 

 8 Callipeltif (iiTEV.). 



^ Lamk. m. t. 842, fig. 2 ( Vaillantia).—Simu. 

 PL Grwc.t. 115, 116 {Sherardia), 137, 138 {Vail- 

 lantia), 141, 142.— H. B. K. Nov. Gen. et Sp. 

 t, 277 {Galium)^ 280.— Keichb. c. PI. Germ. t. 

 1184 ; 1185-1198, 1201 {Galium).— Wmwi, III. 



t. 128 bis; Ic. t. 187.— Hahv. et Soxd. PI. Cap. 

 iii. 34, 35 {Galium).— Tyiv,\ Enum. PL Zeyl. 151. 

 — Benth. pi. Hongkong. 164 {Galium). — Miq. 

 PI. lud-Bat. ii. 337, ZZ^{Galium) ; Suppl. 225. 

 — Benth. PL Austral, iii. 445 {Galium). — F. 

 MuELL. Pragm. ix. 188 {Galium). — Griseb. FL 

 Pnt. W.-Ind. 351 {Galium).— A. Gray, Man. 

 (ed. 2) 169 {Galium).— Clos, C. Gap FL C/iiL iii. 

 177 {Galiwn).— Boiss. Fl.Or. iii. 46-83.— Gren. 

 et GoDR.i^^. de Pr. ii. 13, 14 {Galium), 46 {Fail- 

 lantia). — Walp. Rep. ii. 454 {Galium), 460; 

 vi. 8 {Mericarpcea), 9, 81 {Microphgsa) ; Ann. i. 

 366, 983 {Galiwn) ; ii. 734 {Galium), 738 ; iii. 

 901 {Galium) ; v. 97 {Galium). 



* We may also say that it is not absolutely 

 constant. " The generic distinction between 

 Asperula and Galium is not absolute because the 

 female flowers of the former are sometimes like 

 those of Galium.^' (F. Muell. Pragm. ix. 

 188.) 



