MADDER FAMILY. 175 



§ 2. Fruit dry when ripe, small. 



« Smooth : leaves with strong midrib but no side ribs or nerves : flowers white, 

 loosely clustered at the end of spreading branches. 



G. aspr^Uum, Rough Bedstraw. Low thickets : 3° - 5° high, as it 

 Tvere climbing, the backwardly prickly-roughened angles of the stem and edges 

 and midrib of the lance-oblong pointed leaves adhering to contiguous plants • 

 leaves in whoris of 6 on the stem and of 4 or 5 on the branchlets : flowers 

 numerous. 



G. trifldum, Smali. B. Swamps and low grounds, 6' -2° high, roughish 

 or sometimes nearly smooth ; leaves varying from linear to oblong, 4 - 6 in the 

 whorls ; flowers rather few, their parts often 3. 



* « Fruit smooth or slightly Irristly : leaves 3-nerved : flowers white, in a narrow 

 . and long terminal panicle, y, 



G. bore^e. Northern B. Rocky banks of streams N. ; l°-2° high, 

 smooth, erect, with lance-linear leaves in fours. 



* « • Fruit a little bur, being covered with hooked prickles. 



■I- Leaves mostly 6 or Sin a wliorl, with midrib and no side nerves : flowers whitish 

 or greenish : stems reclining or prostrate, bristly-rough backwards on the angles. 



G. Aparlne, Ci-EAVERa or Goose-Grass. Low grounds : leaves in 

 eights, lanceolate, rough-edged, l'-2' long; peduncles axillary, 1 -2-flowered; 

 fruit large. ® 



G. trifldrum, Sweet-scbwted Bedstraw. Woodlands, especially N. ; 

 leaves mostly in sixes, lance-oblong, bristle-pointed ; peduncles terminating the 

 branches, 3-flowered. Sweet-scented in drying. '2^ 



■<- •*- Leaves all in fours, more or less 3-nerved : flowers not white : stems ascending, 

 about 1° high, rather simple, not prickly-roughened. 21 



G. pil6sum. Commonest S., in dry thickets : leaves oval, dotted, downy, 

 1' long; flowers brown-purple or cream-colored, all pedicelled, the peduncle 

 2 -3-times forked. Var. puNCTicnLbsuM is a smooth form S. 



G. circSBzans, Wild Liqdorice, the root being sweetish : common in 

 thickets ; leaves oval or oblong, obtuse, ciliato ; peduncles once forked, their 

 long branches bearing short-pedicelled dull or brownish flowers along the sides, 

 the fruit reflexed. 



G. lanceol^tum, like the preceding, common N. ; but with lanceolate or 

 lance-ovate tapering leaves, 2' long. 



3. DidDIA, BUTTON-WEED. (Name from Greek for a thoroughfare, 

 being humble weeds, often growing by the wayside.) El. all summer, white 

 or whitish. 



D. Virglnica. Sandy banks from Maryland S. ; with spreading stems 

 1° - 2° long, broadly lanceolate sessile leaves, salver-shaped corolla J' long, 

 2-parted style, and oblong fruit crowned with 2 calyx-teeth. V, 



D. t^res. Sandy fields from N. Jersey and Illinois S. ; with slender stems 

 3' - 9' long, linear and rigid leaves, small corolla rather shorter than the long 

 bristles of the stipules, undivided style, and obovatc little fruit crowned with 

 the 4 short calyx-teeth. O 



4. MITCHELLA, PARTRIDGE-BERRY, {nameiior Dr. J.Mitchell, 

 who corresponded from Virginia with Linnaeus.) El. in early summer. 21 



M. ripens, the only species, common in woods ; a little herb, creeping over 

 the ground, with the small evergreen leaves round-ovate, very smooth and 

 glossy, bright green, sometimes with whitish lines, short-petioled ; the flowers 

 pretty and sweet-scented ; the scarlet fruit remaining over winter, eatable, but 

 dry and almost tasteless. 



6. CEPHALAWTHUS, BUTTON-BUSH. (Name from Greek words 

 for head a.nA flower.) Fl. summer and autumn. . 

 C. occidentals, the only species, is a tall shrub, common algng the bor- 



