STELLATE, 277 



9. Cleavers Galium. Galium Aparine, Linn. 



(Eng. Bot. t. 816. Cleavers. Goosegrass.) 

 Although an annual, tjiis plant often extends to several feet, scrambling 

 over bushes, to which it clings by the recurved asperities or small prickles 

 on the angles of the stem and on the edges and midribs of the leaves. 

 Leaves 6 or 8 in a whorl, hnear or Unear-laneeolate, often above an inch 

 long. Peduncles opposite and axillary, rather longer than the leaves, bear- 

 ing a loose cyme of from 3 to 8 or io small, greenish- white flowers, with 

 3 or 4 leaves at the base of the cyme. Pedicels 2 to 4 Unes long, straight 

 and slender, or but slightly recurved and thickened. Pruits usually covered 

 with hooked bristles, forming small, very adhesive burrs, but sometimes 

 almost or entu-ely without them. 



In hedges and thickets, throughout Em-ope and northern Asia, from the 

 Arctic Circle almost to the tropics, and now spread over North America. 

 Abundant in Britain. Fl. the whole summer, and often in autumn. Slender 

 or short varieties, less hispid, and with smaller fruits, have been distinguished 

 under the names of G. Vaillantii (Eng. Bot. Suppl. t. 2943) and G. sjmrium 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 1871), but the latter name is also given to luxuriant forms of 

 the com G. 



10. Corn Galium. Galium tricome, With. 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 1641.) 



Very near the cleavers G., but a smaller plant, seldom above a foot long, 

 the leaves shorter, the peduncles shorter than the leaves, with only 1, 2, or 3 

 flowers, the pedicels of which are rolled back and thickened after flowering, 

 and the fruit is granulated only, without hooks or bristles. 



A much more southern plant than the cleavers O., very common in waste 

 and cultivated places in the Mediterranean region, and eastward to central 

 Asia ; becomes a cornfield weed in central Europe, and as such extends over 

 most counties of England, but disappears in the north. Fl. with the corn, 

 or sometimes later, on the stulihle. 



III. ASPERirLE. ASPEEULA. 



Differs from Galium only in the shape of the corolla, which tapers at the 

 base into a tube at least as long as the lobes, and often several times 

 longer. 



The species are less numerous than those of Galium, and the geographical 

 range is not so extensive, being limited to Europe, northern Africa, 

 northern and central Asia, and Australia. 



Leaves lanceolate, about 8 in a whorl. Fruit hispid 1 Woodruff A. 



Leaves linear, opposite or J. in a whorl. Fruit small, glabrous .' .' 2. Small A. 



1. TVoodrufiF Asperule. Asperula odorata, Linn. 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 755. Sweet Woodruff.) 

 Rootstock slender and creeping. Stems erect, 6 inches to near a foot 

 high, smooth on the angles. Leaves usually 8 in a whorl (rarely 6, 7, or 9), 

 the lowest small and obovate, the remainder oblong-lanceolate, above an 

 inch long, slightly rough at the edges. Peduncles terminal, bcaruig a few 

 small, white flowers, in a loose, trichotomous cyme. Corollas very fuga- 

 cious. Fruits globular and very hispid. The whole plant has a sweet hay 

 smell in drying. 



2b 



