Galium.] XXXVIII. BUBIACEAE. 249 



SOUTH Island : on dry banks, Pairlie Creek, Geraldine ; also in Selwyn County ; /. F. 

 Armstrong. Deo. 



I have not seen specimens, and fear that the founder of the species has been misled by some 

 form of Galium umbrosum. 



4. GALIUM, Linn. 



Calyx-teeth 0. Corolla rotate, 4- rarely 3- or 5-partite ; lobes spreading, 

 valvate. Stamens 4, rarely 3; filaments short. Ovary 2-celled; cells I-ovuled. 

 Styles 2, connate at the base ; stigmas capitate or simple. Fruit didymous, 

 dry, of 2 indehiscent carpels. Slender weak annual or perennial herbs, with 

 erect prostrate or climbing 4-angled stems and verticillate entire leaves, of 

 which only 2 are true leaves, the remainder being stipules as in Asperula. 

 Flowers in axillary or terminal cymes or panicles, white or yellow. 



Species, about 160, widely distributed. The New Zealand species are endemic. 



Name, from the Greek, in reference to some species being used to curdle milk. 



Leaves 4 in a whorl, linear-lanceolate. Flowers in 2-3-flowered cymes . . . . 1. G. tenuicaule. 



Leaves 4 in a whorl, oblong, muoronate. Flowers solitary . . . . . . 2. G. umbrosum. 



Leaves 6-8 in a whorl, lanceolate, scabrid. Carpels hispid . . . . .." G. Aparine. 



Leaves 6 in a whorl, shortly mucronate. Carpels minutely tubercled . . . . * G. parisiense. 



1. G. tenilicaule, A. Cunn., Precurs. n. 468. A weak slender annual, 



glabrous or slightly scabrid. Stems straggling, 4in. to 3ft. long. Leaves 



distant, 4 in a whorl, ^in.— fin. long, linear-lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, 



acuminate or awned, gradually narrowed into a short petiole ; margins and 



midrib faintly scabrid beneath. Cymes 1— 3-flowered on slender peduncles, 



usually exceeding the leaves ; pedicels short, decurved in fruit. Fruit of 2 



minute globose carpels, glabrous. — Hook, f., Fl. N.Z. i. 113 ; Handbk. 120. 



G. triloba, Col. in Trans. N.Z.I, xx. (1887) 192. 



NORTH and SOUTH Islands : in damp situations on the margins of woods and swamps, from 

 the Lower Waikato to Southland. Ruapuke Island, Mrs. A. W. Traill ! Ascends to 4,000ft. Jan. 

 to March. 



2. G. umbrosum, Soland. ex G. Forst., Prod. n. 500. Annual, erect 

 or suberect or prostrate, sometimes rather stiff but often weak and straggling, 

 lin.— lOin. long, usually glabrous or stem and leaves ciliate. Leaves 4 in a 

 whorl, broadly oblong or elliptical-oblong, acuminate or shortly awned or apicu- 

 late, pellucid, dotted when seen between the eye and the light; petiole short. 

 Peduncles short, exceeding the leaves. Flowers mostly solitary, rarely gemi- 

 nate, minute. Fruit of 2 globose carpels, somewhat rough and uneven. — 

 Hook, f., Fl. N.Z. i. 113 ; Handbk. 120. G. propinquum, A. Cunn., Precurs. n. 

 469. 



NORTH and SOUTH Islands : from the North Cape to Southland. Ruapuke Island, Mrs. 

 A. W. Traill I Ascends to 4,000ft. Jan. to March. 



The late Baron Von Mueller united this with G. Gaudichaudi, DC, but that is a much larger 

 plant, with sessile leaves, flowers in threes, and perfectly glabrous carpels. In our plant the flowers 

 are nearly always solitary or rarely geminate. 



* G. Aparine, L., Sp. PI. 108. Annual, 5ft. -8ft. long or more, weak, straggling. 

 Angles of the stems and midribs and margins of the leaves rough with small recurved 

 28 



