MADDER FAMILY 
RUBIACEZ® 
Tue Madder family is a comparatively small 
group which includes a few herbaceous wild flow- 
ers common in the United States. These have 
small leaves which are arranged either opposite 
each other or in whorls around the stalk. In 
most cases the flowers are of two or three forms 
as regards the lengths of the stamens and pistils. 
The calyx tube is attached to the ovary and the 
petals are united to form the corolla. 
Buuets. The familiar Bluets, or Quaker 
Ladies, are the most abundant of the spring 
wild flowers that belong to this family. These 
blossoms are especially well known by the 
people in New England and the eastern re- 
gion of the United States. Although the plant 
has a rather wide range, being found in the 
east from Nova Scotia to Georgia and ex- 
tending westward as far as Michigan, it seems 
to be the most general and abundant in New 
England, where, in almost any locality, hillsides 
may be found tinted with it in May. The species 
is now called by many common names, although 
early in the nineteenth century it apparently had 
no such names. In his Plants of Boston, pub- 
131 
