238 EUBiACEa:. [Galium. 



II. Gamum, Linn. Bed-straw. 



Corolla rotate, 4-cleft. Stamens 4. Fruit a dry, 2-lobed, inde- 

 hiscent pericarp, without any distinct margin to the calyx. 



* Fruit glabrous. Flowers yellow, 



1. G. criiciatum, With. Crosswort. Mugweed Bed-straw. 

 " Leaves 4 in a whorl ovate 3-nerved hairy, flowers polygamous 

 in small axillary corymbs, peduncles 2-leaved." — Br. Fl. p. 187. 

 E. B. t. 143. 



In dry woods, groves and thickets, along sunny hedges, the borders of woods 

 and fields, and on di-y banks under walls and rocks ; very frequent. Fl. April — 

 June. If. 



2. G. verum, L. Yellow Bed-straiv. " Leaves about 8 in a 

 whorl linear with revolute margins gTooved above downy beneath, 

 flowers in dense panicles." — Br. Fl. p. 187. E. B. t. 660. 



, In dry fields and pastures, by roadsides, on banks, and in loose sand of the sea- 

 shore ; abundantly.* F^. June — September. Zf. 



** Fruit glabrous. Flowers white. 



3. G. Mollugo, L. Great Hedge Bed-straw. " Leaves 6 — 8 in 

 a whorl oblong-lanceolate or obovate mucronate rough at the 

 margin with prickles pointing forward and lower branches of the 

 panicles spreading horizontally, stem flaccid, segments of the 

 corolla taper-pointed, fruit-stalts divaricated. 



" a. Stem glabrous, leaves oblong-lanceolate, floral ones small. F. B. 1. 1673." 

 —Br. Fl. p. 188. 



/3. ochroleuca. Flowers yellowish green. 



In hedges, the borders of woods and thickets, and in bushy places ; abundant 

 throughout the island, i^/. JuneP^August. 2f. 



/3. I5etween Ventnor and Bonchurch, not uncommonly, W. Wilson Saunders, 

 Esq. In a hedge of a common field near Plumbley's (new) hotel, Freshwater 

 gate ; confined to one spot, but in considerable plenty, growing with the ordinary 

 white kind, and strikingly contrasted with it. By the footway between Shanklin 

 and Cook's castle. 



The copious milk-white flowers of the great Hedge Bed-straw very conspicu- 

 ously adorn our hedgerows in the latter months of summer. 



4. G. palustre, L. White Water Bed-straw. Marsh Bed-straw. 

 "Leaves 4 — 6 in a whorl oblong-lanceolate obtuse tapering at the 

 base and as well as the lax spreading branched stem more or less 

 rough, panicles diffuse, fruit-stalks divaricated. 



" a. Stem and leaves smoothish."— Br. FL p. 188. G. palustre, F. B. t. 1857. 



i3. Nerves at the back and margins of the leaves and angles of the stem rough 

 with mostly reflexed prickles. G. Witheringii, Sm. : E. B. t. 2206. G. monta- 

 num. With. 



* The larva of the beautiful, scarce, spotted elephant hawk-moth, Deilephila 

 (Sphinx, L.) Galii, feeds on this species, G. Mollugo, and probably on Rubia 

 peregrina. The insect has been taken in this island. 



