398 RUBIACEAE (MADDER FAMILY) 
Stems many-branched, ridged, and square, two to five feet long, 
very slender and too weak to support themselves, so that they 
clamber over other plants, clinging by means of backward-turning 
prickles on the stem angles. Leaves in whorls of sixes or eights, 
one to two inches long, narrowly spatulate, bristle-pointed, the 
margins and midribs rough with short, stiff hairs. Flowers very 
small, usually in groups of two to four in the 
upper axils. Corollas four-lobed, white, with 
four stamens inserted on the tube and two 
styles. Fruits small, twinned globular burs 
about an eighth of an inch broad, covered with 
short, hooked bristles. (Fig. 277.) 
Means of control 
Since the plant is an annual, if Galium thick- 
ets are cleaned out in the spring before the first 
burs form, the ground must soon be rid of their 
presence. 
ROUGH BEDSTRAW 
Galium aspréllum, Michx. 
Native. Perennial. Propagates by seeds. 
Time of bloom: June to August. 
Seed-time: July to September, 
Range: Newfoundland to Ontario, Minnesota, 
Fie. 277.— and Nebraska, southward to Missouri and the 
Goose-grass or Carolinas. 
Cleavers (Galium Habitat: Alluvial ground; fence rows, thickets 
Aparine). along streams. 
A vexation to the wool-grower in the autumn, when the vines 
have matured and become brittle; broken bits of the square, 
hooked stems work into and cling to the fleeces of the sheep, often 
transporting whole clusters of the seeds to new ground, from which 
the plants are difficult to dislodge because of their pererfnial roots. 
Stems two to six feet long, branching from the base, weak and 
reclining on bushes and other plants, clinging by means of down- 
ward-curving bristles on the stem angles. Leaves usually about an 
inch long, whorled in fives or sixes or occasionally in fours, oblong- 
