STELLATiE. 



389 



both sides. Flowers small and yellow, 

 in little leafy cymes or clusters, shorter 

 than, or scarcely so long as the leaves. 

 Many of these flowers are males only, 

 and soon fall off, their reflexed pedicels 

 remaining till the stem withers. Fertile 

 flowers few, and often 5-lobed. Fruits 

 small, smooth, almost succulent. 



On hedge-banks, and in bushy places, 

 in central and southern Europe, and 

 eastward to the Caucasus. Not unfre- 

 quent in England, and extending a con- 

 siderable way into Scotland, but not 

 mentioned in the Irish Flora. Fl. spring 

 and early summer. 



,Mh. 



?!2 



• j -M> / 



\ 



Fig. 464. 



2. Yellow Galium. Galium verum, Linn. (Fig. 465.) 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 660. Ladies Bedstraw.) 



Hootstock woody, often shortly creep- 

 ing, the whole plant glabrous and smooth, 

 or with only a slight asperity on the 

 edges of the leaves. Stems much 

 branched at the base, decumbent or as- 

 cending, 6 inches to above a foot long, 

 ending in an oblong panicle of very nu- 

 merous, small, yellow flowers. Leaves 

 small, linear, numerous, in whorls of 6 

 or 8. Fruits small, and smooth. 



On banks and pastures, throughout 

 Europe and central and Russian Asia, 

 except the extreme north. Abundant in 

 Britain. Fl. the ivhole summer. 



Fig. 465. 



3. Marsh Galium. Galium palustre, Linn. (Fig. 4iG6.) 



(Eng. Bot. t. 1857.) 



A weak and slender, glabrous perennial, more generally blackening 

 in drying than any of the following. Stems a foot or more long, with 



