240 RUBiACE^. [As2)crula. 



common G. Aparine, and like it tenaciously adhering to every object with which 

 it comes in contact, by means of its small hut strong prickles. Rnot simple, slen- 

 der and annual, moslly reddish, indicating ihe presence of a portion of the colour- 

 ing principle* common to so many plants of this section of the Rubiaceee. Stems 

 often very numemus, at first ascending, afterwards quite prostrate or clinging to 

 the stalks of corn for support, from a few inches to 2 feet in length, brittle, quad- 

 rangular, the angles winged, and very rougli with small prickles pointing down- 

 wards. Whorls rather distant, of 8 linear-lanceolate mucronate leaves, their mid- 

 rib beneath and slightly rettexed margins rou'iih with prickles like those on the 

 stem. Peduncles about as long as the leaves, mostly 3- (sometimes l-or'2-) 

 flowered ; pedicels curved downwards in fruit, one or more of them often abortive, 

 mostly simple, now and then forked and bearing a second flower. Flowers small, 

 white, 4-cleft ; segments of the corolla broadly ovate, with a short inflexed but not 

 acuminate apex, which is tliiukened on the back at the point of inflexion. Sta- 

 mens erect. Stigma capitato-convex. I find many of the flowers with two dis- 

 tinct styles, and occasionally 6-cleft and pentandrous, or trifid and with three 

 stamens. Fruit large, the size of peppercorns, brownish when ripe, scabrous, 

 punctate and celluhir, covered with uiinute tubercles, naturally 2-seeded and with 

 the form of a double globe, but one of the seeds often remains imperfectly deve- 

 loped, reducing the fruit to a simple sphere, with the rudiments of a seccmd lobe 

 attached to it at the base of the pedicel. Seeds round, hard. When ripe, the 

 globular fruit, suspended from the triple downward-curved jiedicels, exactly r-epre- 

 seuts the three balls as they are often hung out over a pawnbroker's shop. 



*** Fruit hispid. 



8. Gr. Aparine, L. Goose-grass. Cleavers or Oliver. Catch- 

 iveed. " Leaves 6 — 8 in a whorl linear-lanceolate hispid their 

 margins midrib and angles of the stem very rough with reflexed 

 prickles, peduncles axillary about 3-flowered, the stalks divari- 

 cating straight, fruit hispid."— 5r. Fl. p. 190. E. B. t. 816. 



About hedges and fences, in woods, thickets, cornfields and waste ground; 

 abundant everywhere. Fl. May — September. ©. 



This species is very widely diff'used over the earth's surface. It is common in 

 America, where by some it is judged to have been imported from the old world. 

 T have however found it in woods and other sequestered spots as far South as 

 New Orleans, where it had quite the appearance of an indigenous plant. 



The herb, chopped small, is given to goslings in this island. 



III. AsPEEULA, Linn. Woodruff. 



" Corolla funnel-shaped. Stamens 4. Fruit without any dis- 

 tinct margin to the calyx." — Br. Fl. 



1. A. odorata, L. Siveet Woodruff. " Leaves 6 — 8 in a whorl 

 lanceolate, flowers panicled on long stalks, fruit hispid." — Br. Fl. 

 191. E.B.t.795. 



In woods, groves, thickets, and on shady hedgebanks ; abundant in various 

 places. Fl. April — June. !(■■ 



E. Med. — Plentiful in Quarr copse, &c. 



W. Med. — Woods about Cowes. 



Root pale red, rhizomatous, very slender, creeping far and wide, and emitting 

 from the joints bundles of hair-like branched fibres, and an occasional stem at 

 distant intervals. Stem erect or a little ascending at base, from 6 inches or less 



* For a farther account of this colouring matter see Ruhia peregrina. 



