inteinodes, shorter branches, and in the correspondingly coarser leaves, up to 16 mm. 

 long, and 2,5 mm. broad. It is distinguished, however, by the very same features cha- 

 racteristic of Galium irifidum, especially by having the flowers solitary, on long, capil- 

 lai7 pedicels, axillary, 2—3 at eac'h node, or terminal. Sometimes the pedicels are seen to 

 be branched, bearing a more or less reduced second flower, the fruits of which never 

 develop into the size of the terminal flower (fig. 112). The pedicels are rather long and 

 very fine, to 12 mm., much longer than the leaves, more or less distinctly arching. The 

 corolla is very small, 3- or rarely 4-parted, its lobes white, broadly ovate. The number of 

 the stamens coresponds to that of the corolla-lobes. The fruits are glabrous, generally 

 mutually quite free, or only very slightly united. In the typical G. Irifidum the pedi- 

 cels are distinctly, frequently even vei-y sharply retrorse-scabrous. These prickles are 

 never to be found in subspec. dislenium, whose pedicels are always glabrate. This cha- 

 racter also recalls G. paluslre L.; the latter differs, however, distinctly from our plant in 

 its shorter, coarser, rather strict and spreading pedicels, in its more connate, to nearly 

 altogether united fruits, moreover, in having the flowers, from 3 — 6, in denser, lateral, or 

 terminal cymes. The stem in subspec. distentum is, for the rest, slightly rough. The leaves 

 are nearly completely glabrous, or only sparingly scabrous along the margin and the 

 midrib on the under side, always in whorls of 4. 



From Sweden a form is reported under the name of Galium palustre X irifidum 

 in Nkuman, Sveriges Flora (1901) p. 108, declared to agree with G. Irifidum in point 

 of habitus, but with glabrous pedicels and cymose flowers. This character does not 

 agree with my specimens, in which the flowers are arranged as is typical in G. Irifi- 

 dum. I have therefore thought it convenient to separate my specimens as a distinct 

 subspecies. The well-grown fruits did not appear to favour the bellief that they were 

 hybrids either. Typical specimens of G. irifidum L. are not to be found in my collections. 



Specimens of the above subspecies have been collected by me in peat-bogs at Ust 

 Algiac, and on the Upper Sisti-kem, associated with Carex microglochin, with flowers 

 and young fruits in the second half of July, and near Ust Tara-kem, in swampy places, 



Distribution: The typical Galium irifidum is distributed over northern and eastern 

 Europe ( very rare in Germany), Siberia, northwards to about 68° north lat., northern 

 Mongolia, Manchooria, Corea, Sakhalin, Japan, North America. 



Galium boreale L. Spec. PI. ed. 11 (1762) p. 156; Ledeb. Fl. Alt. I, p. 136; Bunge, 

 Enum. Alt. p. 8; Turczan. Cat. Baical. no. 566; Karel. et Kiril. Enum. PI. Fl. Alt. no. 411; 

 Ledeb. Fl. Ross. II, p. 412; Turczan. Fl. Baical.-Dahur. (1845) p. 314, no. 556; Herder, PI. 

 Radd. (1864) p. 217, no. 22; ibid. 1881, p. 161; Kpi,M. $.1. Ajit. Ill (1904) p. 560. 



It appears from the material collected that this species varies considerably in the 

 territory explored, especially so in the breadth of the leaves and in the pubescence of the 

 plants on the whole. Specimens are to be found, in Avhich the leaves and stems as well as 

 the fruits are nearly completely glabrous, or only very sparingly pubescent. Most of these 

 specimens are distinctly intermediate between f hi] scopi folium DC. (/. hyssopifolium Koch' 



402 



