lUckardsonia.] LXlV. HUiBIACte^. 781 



expanded ; ovules solitary, attached to the septum at or below the middle. Fruit 

 at length 3-cocco;is ; cocci indehiscent, subcrustaceous, obovoid. Seeds obovoid, 

 attached below the middle, radicle inferior. — Herbs, more or less hispid, with 

 opposite subsessile leaves, shortly sheathing, truncate, setose. Stipules adnate to 

 the leaf-base and small sessile hermaphrodite flowers arranged many together 

 in sessile terminal heads. 



A genus of few species (with the exception of the one here noticed, which is met with in 

 tropical Africa) confined to America. 



1. Hi. scabra (rough), fAnn. Hirsute-hispid, a few inches high; stems 

 erect ; branches spreading. Leaves oval or obovate, obtusely pointed, wedge- 

 shaped at the base, slightly scabrous, f to l^ in. long, veins inconspicuous. 

 Stipular sheath short, terminated by 3 to 5 setse on each side. Flowers shghtly 

 exceeding 2 lines long, many in each head. Calyx-lo^es 6, foliaceous, ovate- 

 deltoid, as long as the truncate-obovate, muricate, 3 or 4 carpels. Fruit about 

 1^ line long. — Hicni. in Oliver's Fl. Trop. Afr. iii. 242. 



Hab.: This West Indian plant has now become naturalised about the Barron River, E. Coioleiji 



36. GALIUM, Linn. 



(From one of the species being used in Europe for curdling milk.) 



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

 rotate, the tube scarcely perceptible, with 4 spreading lobes valvate in the bud. 

 Anthers exserted. Style deeply 2-cleft. Ovary 2-celled, with 1 ascending or 

 laterally attached ovule in each cell. Fruit small, dry, 2-lobed (when perfect), 

 indehiscent. — Herbs, with weak quadrangular sterns. Leaves in whorls of 4 to 

 8, of which 2 are real leaves and the remainder stipules, although precisely 

 similar in size and shape, in one species reduced to the 2 real leaves. Flowers 

 small, in axillary or terminal trichotomous cymes or panicles, rarely solitary. 



An extensive genus, spread over the whole of the temperate regions of the globe, especially 

 abundant in Europe and northern Asia, with very few tropical species, and those chiefly limited 

 to mountain regions. But the proper discrimination and limitation of species in the whole 

 genus is a very difficult and much disputed question. — Bentk. 



Fruit glabrous ami smooth or rarely slightly tubercular. Leaves in whorls 

 of four. Flowers white. Leaves narrow or rarely ovate . . . .' . . 1. G. Gaudichaudi. 



Fruit muricate or hispid. Leaves in whorls of four, mostly ovate or 



lanceolate. Plant scabrous or hispid, with short clinging hairs . . . 2. G. australe. 



1. Cr. Gaudichaudi (after A. Gaudichaud), J>C. Piorl. iv. 607 ; Benth. Fl. 

 Austr. iii. 446. A very variable plant, usually hispid, more rarely glabrous 

 except minute asperities. Stems usually numerous, short erect and densely 

 tufted, or diffuse and extending to 1 or 2Et. Leaves almost always 4 in a whorl, 

 usually sessile, mostly lanceolate or linear, with recurved margins, 2 to 3 lines 

 long, sometimes, and generally the lower ones, small and ovate, or (when grown 

 in shady places ?) thinner, ovate, and much narrowed at the base. Flowers very 

 small, about 3 together, on axillary peduncles, which sometimes grow out 

 irregularly into leafy branches, or the flowers and a few leaves clustered on a 

 very short peduncle. Fruit quite glabrous and smooth when fully ripe, though 

 often appearing rugose when shrivelled in dried specimens. — G. raf/ans, Hook. f. 

 in Hook. Lond. .Journ. vi. 461, and Fl. Tasm. i. 170; (?. axiflorum, F. v. M.; 

 Miq. in Ned. Kruidk. Arch. iv. 118. 



Hab.: Southern localities. 



The species is closely allied to and may not be really distinct from the New Zealand G. 

 nmhrosum, Porst. — Benth. 



Var. (jlabrescens. Stems tufted, erect, glabrous or nearly so. Leaves broad. — Southern 

 localities. 



Var. mnriculatum. Fruit slightly tubercular, connecting the species with (h. au^lnilc. — 

 .Sontliern localities. 



