Flora of the Palouse Region 167 



P. major L. Perennial, pubescent or glabrous, the erect scapes mostly 

 10-30 cm. high: leaves broadly ovate, 3-5-ribbed, obtuse or acute, rounded 

 at base, entire or coarsely dentate, 3-20 cm. long, on stout channeled pe- 

 tioles: spikes 5-20 cm. long: flowers all alike, perfect: sepals ovate or oblong, 

 obtuse, shorter than the acutish capsule: seeds 6-15. Introduced and spread- 

 ing, or one form perhaps native. 



P. purshii R. & S. Annual, 5-30 cm. high, white-hairy or woolly 

 throughout: leaves 1-3-nerved, linear or lanceolate, acute, narrowed at base 

 into a petiole, 5-10 cm. long: spikes dense, 1-10 cm. long; bracts subulate, 

 exceeding the flowers, becoming rigid: flowers perfect but of two kinds on 

 separate plants, in one the 4 stamens being long and exserted, in the other 

 short and included: sepals oblong, obtuse, with broad scarious margins: cor- 

 olla white, the spreading lobes ovate. Dry ground along Snake River. 



P. lanceolata L. Perennial, with a stout tap-root, erect, 30-45 cm. high, 

 more or less pubescent: leaves 3-5-ribbed, lanceolate, acute or acuminate, 

 entire or denticulate, sparsely pubescent, woolly at the base of the broad 

 petiole, 5-20 cm. long: spikes dense, 1-3 cm. long, a little thicker at the 

 base; bracts and sepals scarious: flowers all alike, perfect: capsule oblong, 

 obtuse, 2 seeded: seeds concave on the inner face. Introduced in lawns as a 

 weed. 



Family 72. RUBIACEAK. 



Herbs (in ours): leaves opposite, entire, with intervening stip- 

 ules or whorled without stipules: flowers generally perfect: calyx 

 4 5-lobed or toothed, coherent with the ovary; corolla gamopetal- 

 ous, regular, 4-5-lobed or toothed: stamens on the corolla and 

 alternate with its lobes: ovary inferior, 2-5-celled: endosperm hard, 

 copious. 



279. GALIUM. 



Annual or perennial herbs with 4-angled stems: leaves whorled, 

 without apparent stipules: flowers small, usually cymose: calyx- 

 teeth obsolete: corolla rotate, 4-parted, rarely 3-parted: stamens as 

 many as the corolla-lobes, short: styles 2, short; stigmas capitate; 

 ovary 2-lobed, 2-celled; ovules solitary: fruit dry or fleshy, globu- 

 lar, separating when ripe into 2 closed i-seeded carpels. 



Leaves mostly in fonrs. 



Leaves 3-nerved. <;. hokhai.k. 



Leaves i-nerved. C T . trikimm. 



Leaves mostly in sixes. <;. ksi-hrrimtm. 



Leaves in sixes or eights. C,. APARINE. 



G. boreale L. Perennial, glabrous or nearly so: skins rather slender, 

 but erect, 30-60 cm. high, leafy: leaves all in fours, 3-nervcd, oblong-linear, 

 lanceolate or linear, obtuse to acuminate, mostly 1-3 cm. long: (lowers 

 white, in small cymes which form a large terminal panicle; bract-like leaves 

 much reduced and in pairs: fruit globose, small, hispid, hut becoming glab- 

 rous. Common in moist meadows and on north hillsides. 



