Asperula. | XL. STELLATA. 215 
phical range is not so extensive, being limited to Europe, northern 
Africa, northern and central Asia, and Australia. 
Leaves lanceolate, about 8ina whorl. Fruit hispid : 1. A. odorata. 
Leaves linear, opposite or 4in a whorl. Fruit small, glabrous 2. A. cynanchica, 
1. A. odorata, Linn. (fig. 481). Woodruffi—Rootstock slender and 
creeping. Stems erect, 6 inches to near a foot high, smooth on the 
angles. Leaves usually 8 in a whorl (rarely 6, 7, or 9), the lowest small 
and obovate, the remainder oblong-lanceolate, above an inch long, 
slightly rough at the edges. Peduncles terminal, bearing a few small, 
white flowers, in a loose, trichotomous cyme. Corollas very fugacious. 
Fruits globular and very hispid. The whole plant has a sweet hay 
smell in drying. 
In woods and shady places, throughout Europe and Russian Asia, 
except the extreme north. Abundant in Britain. Fl. spring and carly 
summer. 
2. A. cynanchica, Linn. (fig. 482). Squimancywort.—A smooth and 
glabrous perennial, the stems sometimes erect and wiry, with few 
leaves, 6 or 8 inches high, sometimes decumbent or spreading on the 
ground, in broad, leafy tufts or patches. Leaves narrow-linear, the 
_lower ones 4 in a whorl, the upper ones often 2 only, the 2 others 
wanting or reduced to small stipules. Flowers white, often with a 
lilac tinge, forming little clusters at the summits of the branches; the 
corollas little more than a line long, funnel-shaped, tubular at the 
base. Fruits small, slightly granulated. 
In dry pastures, on warm banks, and stony and sandy places. 
- Abundant in central and southern Europe to the Caucasus, extending 
northward more sparingly to the Baltic. Common in parts of England 
and south and west Ireland, but does not extend into Scotland. Fl. 
summer. 
— 
IV. SHERARDIA. SHERARDIA. 
A single species, with the corolla and fruit of an Asperwia, and the 
habit of some southern species of that genus, but distinguished both 
from Asperula and G'alium by the calyx, which has a distinct border of 
4 or 6 teeth crowning the fruit. 
1. S. arvensis, Linn. (fig. 483). Meld Madder.—A small annual, 
seldom above 6 inches high. Leaves about 6 in a whorl, the lower 
ones small and obovate, the upper linear or lanceolate, all rough on 
the edges and ending in a fine point. Flowers small, blue or pink, in 
little. terminal heads, surrounded by a broad, leafy involucre, deeply 
divided into about 8 lobes, longer than the flowers themselves. Corolla 
with a slender tube, little more than a line long, and 4 small, spreading 
lobes. Calyx-teeth enlarged after flowering, forming a leafy crown to 
the fruit. 
In cultivated and waste places, in temperate Europe and Asia, 
extending far to the north as a weed of cultivation. Common inthe ~ 
greater part of Britain, but scarce in the north of Scotland. Fl. the 
whole summer. 
