icx> Floivcrs and their Pedigrees. 



IV. 

 CLE A VERS} 



Sitting here on the gate that leads into the Fore Acre, 

 I have just disentangled from my nether integuments a 

 long trailing spray of clinging goose-grass, which has 

 fastened itself to my legs by the innumerable little 

 prickly hooks that line the angles of its four-cornered 

 stem. It is well forward for the time of year, thanks 

 to our wonderfully mild and genial winter ; for it is 

 already thickly covered with its tiny white star-shaped 

 flowers, which have even set here and there into the 

 final mature stage of small burr-like fruits. Goose- 

 grass, or cleavers, as we ordinarily call it, is one of the 

 very commonest among Engli.sh weeds, and \ct I 

 dare say you never even heard its name till I told it 

 to you just now ; for it is an inconspicuous, petty 

 sort of plant, which would never gain any attention 

 at all if it were not for its rough clinging leaves, that 

 catch one's fingers slightly when drawn through them, 



• A lecture delivered at the London Insliiulion, Fins! ury Circus. 



