ItUBIACEJE. 213 



neath. Flowers all perfect, white, arranged in a compact leafy 

 panicle, with ascending branches longer than the leaves from which 

 they spring. Fruit thickly covered with bristly hairs hooked 

 inwards at the apex. 



On moist rocks, especially by the sides of streams in moun- 

 tainous districts. Not uncommon in North "Wales, Yorkshire, 

 the North of England, and Scotland ; common in the Highlands. 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Summer 

 and Autumn. 



Tiootstock creeping. Stem tough, somewhat wiry at the base, 

 S to 18 inches high. Leaves ^ to 1| inch long, variable in breadth. 

 Panicle with the branches approximate, short, stiff, leafy, the 

 leaves or bracts opposite, small, ovate. Flowers | inch across. 

 Fruit about the size of grains of sago, dark-olive, with whitish 

 hairs. Plant bright-green, turning blackish in drying, glabrous or 

 puberulent, with the veins on the leaves frequently pubescent 

 beneath. 



Cross-leaved Bedstraw. 



French, Gaillet Boreal. German, Nordisches Labkrau!. 



All the species of Galium are known commonly as Bedstraws, and we find on 

 inquiring the origin of this name, that at a time before the invention of feather-beds 

 and luxurious spring couches, these plants, among others, formed the bedding of our 

 ancestors. Dr. Prior gives the name as " Our Lady's Bedstraw," and suggests that it 

 may allude more particularly to the Virgin Mary having given birth to her Sou in a 

 stable, with nothing but wild flowers for her resting-place. 



SPECIES II.— GALIUM CRUCIATUM. With. 



Plate DCXLVII. 



Reich. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. XVII. Tab. MCLXXXV. Fig. 1. 



Billot, Fl. Gall, et Germ. Exsicc. No. 2475. 



G. Cruciate, Scop. Benth. Handbook Brit. Fl. p. 274. D. C. Prod. Vol. IV. p. 606. 



Koch, Syn. Fl. Germ, et Helv. ed. ii. p. 361. Gr. <fe Goclr. Fl. de Fr. Vol. II. 



p. 16. 

 Valautia cruciata, Linn. Sp. PI. p. 1491. 



Perennial. Stems weak, decumbent, hairy, branched only at the 

 base ; branches simple, ascending. Leaves thin, 4 in a whorl, oval- 

 elliptical or oval-ovate, with a distinct central nerve and 2 indis- 

 tinct lateral ones, hairy all over, especially beneath. Flowers 

 polygamous, yellow, in axillary cymes, with the peduncles not ex- 

 ceeding or shorter than the leaves from which they spring, divaricate 

 and the pedicels recurved after flowering. Fruit glabrous, smooth. 



In hedge-banks and open places in woods and thickets. 



