RUBIACEAE (MADDER FAMILY) 397 
roots, though much inferior to the true Madder, are sometimes 
used for the production of a red dye. 
Stems numerous, tufted, three to ten inches long, some erect 
and some spreading on the ground, very slender, square, and 
rough-hairy on the angles. Leaves about a 
half-inch long, narrow, rough-edged, sharp- 
pointed, sessile, and whorled in fours, fives, or 
sixes. Flowers very small, in dense terminal 
clusters or heads, surrounded by an involucral 
whorl of spiny-pointed, leaf-like bracts; they 
are blue (sometimes pink), the corollas fun- 
nel-shaped, with four or five spreading lobes, 
and as many stamens as lobes, inserted on 
the tube, the anthers exserted; style two- 
parted at summit. Ovary below the flower, 
two-celled and two-seeded, forming twin car- 
pels which are indehiscent and crowned by 
the persistent, rough-hairy, four- to six-lobed 
calyx. (Fig. 276.) 
Means of control 
Clover fields and meadows infested with 
this weed should be mowed very early, before 
the formation of seed. Being annual, it can 
Fic. 276.— Blue 
Field Madder (Sher- 
ardia arvensis). X 4. 
thus be driven out in a year or two, if seeds are not allowed to 
foul the ground. 
GOOSE-GRASS, OR CLEAVERS 
Galium Aparine, L. 
Other English names: Scratch Grass, Grip Grass, Cling Rascal, 
Catchweed, Hedgeburs, Sweethearts. 
Native. Annual. Propagates by seeds. 
Time of bloom: May to September. 
Seed-time: July to November. 
‘Range: New Brunswick to Alaska, southward to Florida and Texas. 
Habitat: Rich soil; fence rows and thickets. 
A worthless weed, and sometimes a serious 
pest to the wool- 
grower, who finds the quality of his fleeces cheapened by its tiny 
burs. 
