STELLATiE. 273 



The Stellates are widely diffused over the globe, especially in temperate 

 regions ; in the tropics they are more rare, except in mountainous regions. 

 They form a considerable and very natural tribe in the great Natural Order 

 of Subiacece, otherwise unrepresented in Britain or even in Europe. It is one 

 of the most extensive ones within the tropics, distinguished by opposite 

 leaves, interpetiolar stipules, an adherent calyx, and a monopetalous corolla, 

 and includes trees and shrubs as well as herbs. Many are cultivated in our 

 stoves, greenhouses, or flower-beds, including the genera Cqffiea, Gardenia, 

 Liiculia, Pentas, Manetlia, Boiivardia, etc. 



Corolla with a distinct tube, as long as or longer than the lobes. 



Fruit crowned by the 4 teeth of the calyx. Flowers in heads, 



surrounded by an involucre 4. Sherabdia. 



Calyx not distinct. Flowers in panicles 3. Aspebule. 



Corolla rotate, the tube very short or indistinct. 



Fruit fleshy. CoroUa usually 5-lobed 1. Macdee. 



Fruit dry. CoroUa usually i-lobed 2. Galium. 



I. MADDER. EUBIA. 



A genus only distinguished from Galium by the rather larger succulent 

 fruit. The European species have also larger leaves, of a firmer, more shin- 

 ing texture, and tlie flowers have often 5 instead of 4 parts, but these diU'er- 

 euces scarcely hold good in the South American species. 



The species are not numerous, and might rather be considered as forming 

 one or two sections of Oalium, the South American species being interme- 

 diate between the two genera as now established. 



1. VSTild IVIadder. Rubia pere^ina, Linn. 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 851.) 



A straggling herb, of a shining green, sometimes very dwarf, sometimes 

 trailing over bushes and hedges to the length of several feet, clinging by 

 means of short recurved prickles on the edges and midribs of the leaves, 

 and sometimes on the angles of the stem. Eootstock and sometimes also 

 the base of the stem perennial and creeping. Leaves 4 or 6 in the whorl, 

 ovate-oblong or lanceolate, 1 to 1^ inches long, on very short stalks or nearly 

 sessile. Flowers small, greenish, in loose axillary or terminal panicles ratlier 

 longer than the leaves. Corolla usually 3-lobed. Fruit a small black 2- 

 lobed berry. 



In dry woods, and stony places, in western and southern Europe, and east- 

 ward to the Caucasus, less frequent in northern France and Germany. In 

 Britain scarcely found beyond the south-western counties of England, and 

 the coast of South Wales. Fl. all summer. 



The dyers' Madder [R. tinctoria), extensively cultivated in southern 

 Europe for the scarlet dye furnished by its roots, differs but very sUghtly 

 from the wild M., and may be a mere variety. 



II. GAXiIUM. GALIUM. 



Herbs, with weak, quadrangular stems, sessile leaves, in whorls of 4, 6, or 

 8, and sniall white, yeUow, or (in exotic species^ red flowers, in axillary or 

 termmal tricliotomous cyines or panicles, sometimes reduced to small clusters. 

 Calyx completely combined with the ovary, without any visible border. 



