26.0 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



Asperula odwaia. 



male and ordinarily trimerous. The ovary of the medial becomes a 

 fruit, one of the mericarps of which is frequently aborted ; its pedicel 

 is recurved so as to bear the fruit below, and is accompanied with the 



pedicels of the two male flowers, more or 

 less transformed to crests.^ There is also 

 in the Levant and Mediterranean region, 

 an exceptional Galium, type of a genus 

 Gallipeltis,^ the hermaphrodite flowers of 

 which are axillary and temate, pendent, 

 enclosed each in a cymbiform, membranous 

 bract, which grows and folds itself longi- 

 tudinally round the fruit, ordinarily re- 

 duced to a single fertile carpel, more 

 elongate than that of other species of 

 Galium and incurved at maturity like the 

 seed it encloses. We consider all these 

 types as so many sections ^ of one and the 

 same genus Eubia, thus comprising some 

 two hundred* species, belonging to all 

 regions of both worlds, chiefly to the' 

 temperate portions. 



Asperula (fig. 231-234) has been dis- 

 tinguished from Rubia and Galium chiefly 

 by the form of the corolla, which is tubular 

 or fjmnel-shaped instead of rotate or bell-shaped. This distinction 

 is somewhat artificial.* The flowers have no true calyx. What has 



Fia;. 231. Floriferous tranch. 



' There may he a fonrtli and a fifth male 

 flower ooutinmng the cyme, but more or less 

 completely aborted. 



' Stev. Obs. PL Ross. 69 (ex Miin. Moso. vii. 

 275).— DC. Frodr. iv. 613.— Enbl. Gen. n. 3099. 

 — B. H. Gen. ii. 148, u. 327.— Citeullaria Buxe. 

 Cent. i. 13. 



'1. Eurubia. 



2. Hidymaa (H. f.). 



3. GaUum (T.). 

 Eubia / *' ■'^*'*""*"'" (Undl.). 

 Sect 8 1 ^' ^^^^'^^'P'^" (Boiss.). 



6. Cruciata (T.). 



7. Vaillaiitia (T.). 

 , 8 CalUpeltis (Ste v. ) . 



" Lamk. III. t. 842, fig. 2 {Vaillantia). —Si-RT-a. 

 Fl- Giwc.t. 115, 116 [Merardia), 137, 138 ( Vail- 

 lantia), 141, 142.— H. B. K. Nov. Gen. et Sp. 

 t. 277 {Galium), 280.— Keichb. o. M. Germ. t. 

 1184 ; 1185-1198, 1201 {Galium).— Wiam, III. 



t. 128 "is ; Ic. t. 187.— Harv. et Sond. Fl. Cap. 

 iii. 34, 35 (_eoZiMm).— Thw. Enum. PI. Zeyl. 151 . 

 — Benth. Fl. Hongkong. 164 {Galium). — Mia. 

 Fl. Ind.-Bat. ii. 337, 338((?a«Mm) ; Suppl. 226. 

 — Benth. Fl. Austral, iii. 445 (Galium). — F. 

 MuELi. Fragm. ix. 188 {Galium). — Griseb, iiV. 

 Bnt. W.-Ind. 351 {Galium). — A. Gray, Man. 

 (ed. 2) 169 {Galium).— Cwa, C. Gay Fl. CHI. iii. 

 177 {Galium). — Boiss. Fl. Or. iii. 46-83. — Gren. 

 et GoDR. J/. deFr. ii. 13, 14 {Galium), 46 {Vail- 

 lantia). — Walp. Rep. ii. 454 {Galium), 460; 

 vi. 8 {Meriearpwa), 9, 81 {Mierophysa) ; Ann. i. 

 306, 983 {Galium) ; ii. 734 {Galium), 738; iii. 

 ^n. {Galium) ; v. 97 {Galium). 



' We may also say that it is not absolutely 

 constant. " The generic distinction between 

 Asperula and Galium is not absolute because the 

 female flowers of the former are sometimes like 

 those of Galium." (F. Muell. Fragm: ix. 

 188.) 



