THE BEDSTRAW FAMILY 
[ORDER XXXVIII. RUBIACEiE] 
[SUB-ORDER. 
CALYX of 4 or 5 SEPALS, united into a 
small tube usually entirely combined with 
the seedcase, rarely separating into 4 or 5 
teeth. 
COROLLA of 4 or 5 PETALS, united at 
the base and separating into the same 
number of spreading lobes, inserted on the 
top of the calyx-tube (epigynous). 
STAMENS, as many as the petals, inserted 
on the corolla-tube (epipetalous). 
PISTIL of 2 CARPELS, united into a 
2-celled seedcase (ovary), and a style 2-cleft 
at the top with a pin-head-like stigma on 
each branch. 
FRUIT small and dry, rarely fleshy, 2-celled, 
STELLATE] 
usually separating into 2 i-seeded cases, 
decaying to free the seed (indehiscent). 
FLOWERS small, growing in clusters termi- 
nating the stem and branches (corymbose 
cymes). 
STEMS square. 
LEAVES entire and opposite, apparently in 
clusters of 4, 6, or 8, arranged in a circle 
round each joint (node) on the stem (whorl). 
In reality only the 2 opposite ones are real 
leaves, the others are stipules, though pre- 
cisely similar in appearance to the leaves. 
DISTINGUISHED BY the clusters of small, 
star-like flowers, by the leaves being ar- 
ranged in circles, and by the fruits being 
lobed in two and so apparently in pairs. 
T HE Bedstraw is distinguished from the Honeysuckle Family by the presence of stipules 
between the leaves, in many instances stipules so exactly like the leaves that they are 
popularly called leaves. This happens in the sub-order Stellatae, the only sub-order represented in 
Great Britain. The leaves are then said to be in whorls, that is, arranged in circles round the 
joints of the stems. 
The order is a very large and important one, though, as has just been stated, but poorly 
represented in the British Isles, and the specimens found are practically of no use. The 
large majority of species are tropical plants, very beautiful and often of great use to mankind. 
The sweet Gardenia and the delicate Bouvardia are examples of the lovely tropical species to be 
found in our greenhouses. The genus Coffaea supplies us with coffee, Cinchona with Peruvian bark, 
from which we obtain quinine, and Cephaelis Ipecacuanha with the drug ipecacuanha. A species 
of Madder (Rubia tinctoria) from southern Europe yields a valuable rose-red dye, and another 
species (Rubia cordifolia) of the same genus, from India, also yields a useful red dye. 
MADDER. (RUBIA, LINN.) — Flowers small, yellowish, in few-flowered clusters, terminating 
the main stem and branches. Sepals 5, entirely combined with the seedcase, without teeth ; 
I2 9 V 
