188 RUBIA. 



CLASS IV ORDBft 1. 



GENUS V. RU'BIA. Linn. Madder. 



Nat. Ord. Stella't^. 



Gen. Char. Corolla rotate or campanulatc, with from three to five 

 spreading segments. Fruil a succulent, smooth, two-lobed berry. 

 — Name from ruber, red ; on account of the red matter which the 

 roots afford. 



1. R. perep-i'na, Linn. (Fig. 238.) wild Madder. Leaves from four 

 to six in a whorl, lanceolate, persistent, smooth and shining ; the 

 margin and keel rough, with reflexed prickles; flowers five-cleft. 



English Botany, t. 85L — English Flora, vol. i. p. 21L — Lindley, 

 Synopsis, p. 131. — Hooker, British Flora, vol. i. p. 69. 



Root with numerous creeping, fleshy, reddish underground stems. 

 Sterns branched, spreading, square and striated, the angles rough with 

 reflexed prickles, stout, somewhat shrubby. Leaves lanceolate or ovate- 

 lanceolate, in whorls of from four to six each on the stem, frequently 

 on the branches only two or three, evergreen, a.nd remaining attached 

 to the plant ; the margin pale, somewhat reflexed when dry, and rough, 

 with stout reflexed prickles, as well as the stout prominent midrib. 

 Ivfiorescence in small terminal and lateral branched panicles of yellow- 

 ish-green flowers, each subdivision having at their base a pair of lance- 

 olate hractece. Corolla rotate or campanulate, of mostly five broad ovate 

 segments, suddenly contracted into a slender point, concave when newly 

 expanded, becoming convex. Fruit a smooth, juicy, black and shi- 

 ning, double berry ; frequently one of them is abortive. 



Habitat. — Stony and sandy ground, in tlie South-west of England. 

 Not unfrequent in South Wales : Anglesea — Mr. Wilson. South side 

 of Hovvth and Killiney Hill; limestone rocks at Mucruss and Killar- 

 ney; hedges near Passage, County Cork, Ireland. 



Perennial ; flowering from June to August. 



This species is nearly allied to Ru'bia iincto'ria, the roots of which 

 furnish us with one of the most useful dyes with which we arc ac- 

 quainted, known by the name of madder. The roots are infused in 

 watei', to which it imparts its colouring matter, which is afterwards 

 precipitated from it l^y the addition of alum ; it is then collected and 

 prepared cither as a pigment or dye-stufl". Madder is l)ut little grown 

 in this country, on account of its being obtained much cheaper from 

 France, Holland, Italy, and Turkey, than it can be grown at home. 

 It has the property of tinging the secretions and excretions of animals 

 that are allowed to feed upon it ; and by its means curious bony pre- 

 parations are made, which shew that the deposition of osseous matter 

 and its removal is continually going on in the animal economy, by the 

 alternate layers of red and v^liite in the bones of animals alternately 

 fed upon madder and ordinary food, and the disappearance of all ad~ 



