ASPER'ULA ARCADIEN'SIS. 
ARCADIAN WOODROOF. 
Class. 
TETRANDRIA. 
Order. 
MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
RUBIACE*. 
Native of 
Height. 
Flowers in 
Duration, 
Introduced 
Arcadia. 
3 inches. 
May. 
Perennial. 
in 1810. 
No. 808. 
The generic name, Asperula, is a diminutive of 
asper, signifying rough, which has an allusion to the 
leaves. The English name, Woodroof, as is observ- 
ed by Martyn, is not derived from any foreign lan- 
guage, and the orthography of it is various. We 
may quote it as a specimen of the mutability of an 
English name. T urner calls it Wood-rose or Wood- 
rowed; Gerard WoodroofFe, Woodrowe, and Wood- 
rowell; Parkinson Woodroofe; and some old au- 
thors Woodderowffe. It seems at first that these 
names are derived from the place of growth, and the 
roughness of the seeds, but Turner says, “It is a 
short herbe of a span long, four-square and smal, 
about the which growe certaine orders of leaves, 
certayne spaces goynge betwene, representing some 
kindes of rowelles of sporres, whereof it hath the 
name in English. ” The corruption from Wood- 
rowel to Woodroof through Woodrowe is easy. 
The observations of the old authors have refer- 
ence to that species of Woodroof called Asperula 
adorata, and the quaint one of Gerard should not 
be lost. It is a fair sample of the descriptions of his 
age. He says “ Woodrooffe hath many square slalkes 
