kubiace^;. 165 



' Obdeb lv. R U B I A C E /E . 



Our species herbs ( Cephalanihus and some species of Galium, shrubby) 

 with opposite or vertioillate mostly exstipulate entire leaves, and 4- 

 merous perfect (or often dioecious) flowers. Calyx-limb obsolete, or of 4 

 teeth. Stamens distinct, alternate with the corolla-lobes and inserted on 

 its throat or tube. Ovary 2 — 4-celled, with a solitary ovule in each cell. 

 Fruit indehiscent, dry or baccate. 



1. CEl'HALANTHUS, Linn. (Button-bush). Shrubs with oppo- 

 site or ternate leaves, and flowers in dense globose terminal and axillary 

 peduncled heads. Calyx inverse-pyramidal, 5-toothed. Corolla with 

 long slender tube and small 4-cleft limb. Stamens 4, short, on the 

 tbroat of the corolla. Style slender, long-exserted; stigma capitate; 

 ovary 2-celled. Fruit achene-like, 1 — 2-seeded. 



1. C. ore idea talis, L. Shrub or small tree, with ovate lanceolate 

 leaves 3—5 in. long, rather glossy above, often more or less pubescent: 

 fl. white, in heads 1 in. thick, these solitary or few or several toward the 

 ends of the branches. — Biver banks of the interior, especially of the 

 lower Sacramento and San Joaquin. June — August. 



2. SHERARDIA, Ditlenius. Annual, slender, rough, with angular 

 stem, and exstipulate leaves in verticels of 6. Flowers umbellate. Calyx- 

 limb of 4 — 6 accrescent teeth. Corolla salverform, with a slender tube 

 and 4-cleft limb. Stamens 4. Fruit of 2 dry indehiscent 1-seeded car- 

 pels, crowned by the calyx-teeth, separating when ripe. 



1. S. arvbnsis, L. About 3—6 in. high, hispidulous-roughened or 

 nearly glabrous: leaves obovate-lanceolate, acute: fl. in small subsessile 

 umbellate cymes : corolla bluish. — Berkeley. 



3. GALIUM, Diosc. (Bedstraw. Cleavers). Herbaceous or suffru- 

 tescent, with slender angular stems, vertioillate leaves without stipules, 

 and small cymose flowers. Calyx-limb obsolete. Corolla rotate, 4-parted. 

 Stamens as many as the corolla-lobes, short. Styles 2, short: stigmas 

 capitate: ovary 2-lobed, 2-celled, 2-ovuled. Fruit didymous (biglobular), 

 dry or fleshy, separating into 2 close 1-seeded carpels which are inde- 

 hiscent, and glabrous, hispid, or hirsute. 



* Fruit dry when ripe. 



■h- Annuals. 



1. Q. Spurium, L. Branching chiefly from the base; diffuse, 1—2 ft. 

 high, glabrous except the retrorsely scabrous angles of the stem and 

 veins and margins of the leaves: leaves 6—8 in the whorl, linear-oblan- 

 ceolate, cuspidate: fl. 3-9 in axillary umbellate cymes; corolla pale 

 green, the segments acuminate: pedicels recurved after flowering: fruit 



