144 PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



slender, some very rough, and some very smooth ; fruit of some 

 smooth, of others very hispid. The plants seem of little use, 

 except that the roots of some are employed by the aborigines to 

 dye red. 



G. tinctorium, L., and G. boreale, L., are both used as yield- 

 ing from their roots a beautiful red. 



G. asprellum. L. A very rough Bedstraw. 



G. circcBzans. Mx. Liquorice. So called from its taste 

 resembling that of the true liquorice. 



G. trifidum. L. Small Bedstraw. A small, scabrous plant. 



G. aparine. L. From the Greek, to lay hold, because its 

 fruit is covered with hooked bristles, by which it adheres to man 

 and beast, for which the Greeks called it man-lover, and the Eng- 

 lish call it cleavers ; and some call it goose-grass, because geese 

 feed on it ; formerly used in Sweden as a strainer for milk ; puri- 

 fying to the blood, antiscorbutic ; roots dye red ; tinges the bones 

 of birds that eat it ; sometimes a troublesome weed ; prickles of 

 stem stand backwards, and leaves are 6 or 8 in a whorl, linear- 

 lanceolate, mucronate. 



G. obtusum. Big. Obtuse-leafed, having a slender, much 

 branched, and diffuse stem, smooth ; leaves 4 in a whorl, linear- 

 lanceolate, very obtuse ; fruit globular, smooth ; banks of Muddy 

 Brook in Roxbury ; July. Big. 



G. verum. L. Yellow Bedstraw. Conspicuous for its yel- 

 low flowers ; stem erect, slender, pubescent ; vicinity of Boston ; 

 probably not indigenous here as it is in Europe. 



G. lanceolatum. Tor. Popularly called liquorice, from the 

 sweet taste of its stem and leaves. Stem erect ; leaves lanceo- 

 late, long, acuminate, and narrow ; flowers few, and fruit hispid. 



