208 RUBiACE^. (madder family.) 



Order 50. RUBIACEiE. (Madder Family.) 



Shrubs or herbs, with opposite entire leaves connected by interposed stipules, 

 or in whorls without apparent stipules, the calyx coherent with the 2 - i-celled 

 ovary, the stamens as many as the lobes of the regular corolla (3-5), and 

 inserted on its tube. — Flowers perfect, but often dimorphous (as in Mitch- 

 ella and Houstonia). Fruit various. Seeds anatropous or amphitropous. 

 Embryo commonly pretty large, in copious hard albumen. — A very large 

 family, the greater part, and all its most important plants (such as the 

 Coffee and Peruvian-Bark trees) tropical ; not sufficiently represented in 

 our district to render it worth while to note the tribes and the larger 

 systematic divisions. 



I. STELLAT.Si. Leaves in whorls : no apparent stipules. 



1. Galium. Corolla wheel-shaped, 4- (or rarely 3-) parted. Calyx-teeth obsolete. Fruit 



twio, separating into 2 indehiscent one-seeded carpels. 



n. CINCHONE^, &c. Leaves rarely in whorls, with stipules. 



* Ovules and seeds solitary in each cell. 

 .*- Flowers axillary, separate. Fruit dry when ripe. Herbs. 



2. Spermacoce. Corolla funnel-form or salver-form : lobes 4. Fruit separating when ripe 



into 2 carpels, one or both of them opening. 



3. Diodia. Fruit separating into 2 or 3 closed and indehiscent carpels : otherwise as No. 2. 



..- ■.- Flowers In a close and globose long-peduncled head. Fruit dry. Shrubs. 



4. Cephalantlius. Corolla tubular ; lobes 4. Fruit inversely pyramidal, 2- 4-seeded. 



t- *- .t- Flowers twin ; their ovaries united into one. Fruit a 2-eyed berry, 



5. Mitcliella. Corolla funnel-form ; its lobes 4. — A creeping herb. 



* * Ovules and seeds many or several in each cell of the (loculicidal) pod. 



6. Oldenlandia. Corolla wheel-shaped in our species, 4-lobed. Seeds very numerous 



and minute, angular. 



7. Houstonia. Corolla salver-form or funnel-form, 4-lobed. Seeds rather few, thimble- 



shaped or saucer-shaped. 



1. GALIUM, L. Bedstkaw. Cleavers. 



Calyx-teeth obsolete. Corolla 4-parted, rarely 3-parted, wheel-shaped, valyate 

 in the bud. Stamens 4, rarely 3, short. Styles 2. Fruit dry or fleshy, globu- 

 lar, twin, separating when ripe into the 2 seed-like, indehiscent, 1 -seeded carpels. 

 — Slender herbs, with small cymose flowers (produced in summer), square stems, 

 and whorled leaves : the roots often containing a red coloring matter. (Name 

 from yaXa, milk, which some species are used to curdle.) 



* Annual : leaves about 8 in a whorl : peduncles 1 - 2-Jlowered, axillary. 



1. G. Aparine, L. (Cleavers. Goose-Gkass.) Stem weak and re- 

 clining, bristle-prickly backwards, hairy at the joints ; leaves lanceolate, tapering 

 to the base, short-pointed, rough on the margins and midrib ( 1 ' - 2' long) ; flow- 

 ers white ; fruit (large) bristly with hooked prickles. — Moist thickets. Doubtfal 

 if truly indigenous in our district. (Eu.) 



* * Perennial, ascending ; leaves i -6 or S in a whorl, with prominent midrib, but 

 no lateral nerves ; flowc-rs white, few or numerous, on slender pedicels : fruit smooth. 



