170 RUBIACE^. (mADDEK FAMILY.) 



flowers white; frnt (large) bristly with hooked prickles. — Moist thickets. Donhfr 

 fal if truly indigenous in our district. (Eu.) 



* # Perennial: leaves 4-6 [in the last species 8) in a whorl. 

 ■t- Peduncles axillary and terminal, few-flowered : flowers white or greenish. 



2. G. asprelliiin, Michx. (Rough Bebsteaw.) Stem weak, much 

 branched, rough backwards with, hooked prickles, leaning on bushes (3° -5° 

 liigh) ; leaves in whorls of 6, or 4-5 on the branclilets, oral-hincwlate, pointed, with 

 almost prickly margins and midrib ; peduncles many, short, 2-3 times forked ; 

 fruit usually smooth. — Low thickets, common nortliward. July. — Branchlets 

 covered with numerous but very small white flowers. 



3. G. concinnum, Torr. & Gr. Stems low, diffuse, with minutely 

 roughened angles ; leaves all in whorls of 6, linear, slightly pointed, veinless, the 

 margins upwardly roughened ; peduncles slender, 2-3 times forked, somewhat 

 panieled at the summit; pedicels short ;y5-«jV smooth. — Dry soil, Michigan to 

 Kentucky. June. — Plant 6' -12' high, slender, but rather rigid, not tuniing 

 blackish in drying, like the rest. 



4. G. trifidnm, L. (Small Bedstraw.) Stems weak, ascending 

 (5'-20' high), branching, roughened backwards on the angles ; leaucs in whorls 

 of i to 6, linear or oUanceolate, obtuse, the margins and midrib rougli ; ]>ediincles 

 1 - 3-flowered ; pedicels slender ; eoroUa-lobes and stamens often 3 ; fniit smooth. 

 — Var. 1. TiNcibEiUM : stem stouter, with nearly smooth angles, and the parts 

 of the flower usually in fours. Var. 2. LATirOLiuM (G. ohtijsum, BijeM : 

 stem smooth, widely branched ; leaves oblong, quite rough on the midril) and 

 margins. — Swamps ; common, and vei-y vai-iable. Junc-Aug. (Eu.) 



5. G. triflurum, Michx. (Sweet-scented Bedstraw.) Stem weak, 

 reclining or prostrate (l°-3° long), bristly-roughened backwards on the angles, 

 shining ; leaves 6 in a whorl, eUiptical-lanceokite, brisllc-pointtd, witli slightly 

 roughened margins (1' - 2' long) ; peduncles Sfiowered, tlie flowers all podicelled ; 

 fruit bristly with hooked luxirs. — Rich woodlands, comnion. July. — Lobes of 

 the greenish corolla pointed. (Eu.) 



H — t- Peduncles severalfiowered : flowers duUpurpleor brownish {rarely cream-color) ; 

 petals rnucronate or bristle-pointed : fruit densely hooked-bristly. 



6. G. pilusiim, Ait. Stem ascending, somewhat simple, hairy ; leaves in 

 fours, oval, dotted, hairy (1' long), scarcely 3-nei-oed ; peduncles twice or thrice 

 2-3-forked, the flowers all pedicelled. — Dry copses, Rhode Island and Vermont 

 to Illinois and southward. June -Aug. — Var. puncticul6si;m is a nearly 

 smooth form (G. puncticulosum, Miclix.) : Virginia and southward. 



7. G. cii'csezans, Michx. (Wild Liquorice.) Smooth or downy, 

 erect or ascending (1° high) ; leaves in fours, oval, varying to ovate-oblong, 

 mostly obtuse, 3-nerved, ciliate (I'-lJ' long); peduncles usually once forlced, the 

 branches elongated and widely diverging in fruit, bearing several remote flowers 

 on very short lateral pedicels, reflexed in fruit ; lobes of the corolla hairy outside 

 above the middle. — Rich woods; common. June -Aug. — The var. montA- 

 NUM is a dwarf, broad-leaved form, from mountain woods. 



8. G. lauceolatum, Torr. (Wild Liquorice.) Leaves in fours, 



