Galium. RUBIACE.E. 309 



Order LII. RUBIACE^. Juss. The Madder Tribe. 



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

 free ; the Umb 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 witli them. Fruit various. Embryo straioht 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. Stellat^e. R. 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 bearintr 

 buds in their axils. iEstivation 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 sufFrutescent plants. 



I.GALIUM. Linn. ; Endl. gen. ZUO. bedstraw. CLEAVERS. 



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



Calyx-tube 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 w^hen ripe into 2 indehiscent 

 globose one-seeded carpels. Albumen homy. — Herbaceous or very rarely suffrutesccnt 

 plants, with 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 Apari.\e. Common Cleavers, or Goose-grass. 



Stem weak, branching, retrorscly aculeate-hispid, liairy about the joints ; leaves mostly 

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

 elongated, a.xillary, 1 - 2-flowered ; fruit large, very hispid with hooked prickles. — Linn, 

 sp. 1. p. 108 ; Engl. hot. 816 ; Pursh, Jl. \. p. 103 ; Torr. jl. I. p. 166 ; Bigcl. Jl. Bust, 

 p. 57; DC. prodr. 4. p. 608 ; Hook. Jl. Bor.-Am. 1. p. 290 ; Becli, hot. p. 162 ; Darlin<rt 

 Jl. Cest. p. 100; Torr. ^ Gr. Jl. N. Am. 2. p. 20. 



