red.—Linn. spec. 1. p. 268 ; FI. Dan. t. 661'; Engl. hot. t. 322; DC. prodr.
4. p. 328. Opulus glandulosus, Mosnch, meth. p. 505.
fl. Americanum (Ait.) : leaves remotely and rather obtusely toothed.—Ait.
Kew. (ed. 1) 1. p. 373. V. trilobum, Marsh, arhust. p. 162. V. Opulus fl.
Pimina & y. edule, Michx. ! fl. 1 .p . 180. V. opuloides, Muhl. cat. p. 32.
V. Oxycoccus & V. edule, Pursh, jl. l.p . 203 ; Torr. ! jl. 1. p. 320 ; DC.
prodr. 4. p. 328; Hook. jl. Bor.-Am. 1. p. 281; Auduhon, birds of Amer.
1.148.
y. subintegrifolium (Hook.) : leaves somewhat incised, very pubescent
beneath. Hook. 1. c. under V. Oxycoccus.
Swamps and along streams, from the northern part of Pennsylvania, New-
York ! and the New England States! to the Arctic Circle and the Rocky
Mountains. fl. Oregon, Dr. Scolder, Douglas. May-June.—Shrub 3-10
feet high, with glabrous gray spreading branches. Leaves 3-5 inches long,
with divaricate lobes ; the base either truncate or somewhat acute ; the lower
sprinkled with hairs: petiole often with subulate stipuliform appendages.
Cyme 3-4 inches in diameter; the sterile flowers few or usually numerous,
very large. Stamens exserted. Fruit nearly half an inch in length, juicy,
of a pleasant acid taste when ripe, often employed as a substitute for cranberries.—
We find no constant or essential characters to distinguish our plant
from the V. Opulus of Europe ; a garden variety of which, with the flowers
all sterile, is the well-known Snow-ball Bush. Our plant is called Cranberry
Bush, or Hig h Cranberry.
11. V. lanianoides (Michx.): leaves ovate-orbicular, cordate, abruptly
acuminate, finely and unequally or doubly serrate, membranaceous; the
lower surface, and especially the prominent veins and the petioles, tomentose
with a pulverulent partly deciduous rusty stellate pubescence; cymes sessile
; the exterior flowers sterile and very large; fruit ovoid; the nucleus
with a longitudinal groove on each side.—Miehx.! jl. l .p . 179; Pursh, jl.
l .p . 202; Torr. ! f l . 1 . p. 319 ; Bigel. jl. Bost. ed. 2. p. 117; DC. prodr.
4. p. 326 ; Hook. jl. Bor.-Am. 1. p. 280. V. Lantana fl. grandifolium, Ait.
Kew. 1. c. V. Lantana fl. Canadense, Pers. syn. 1. p. 327. V. grandifolium,
Smith, in Rees, cycl. no. 14.
Deep rocky woods, Canada! the northern part of the New England States!
and New York ! and along the Alleghany Mountains to Virginia- May-
June.—A low very straggling shrub, with the branches often procumbent.
Leaves and inflorescence appearing from the same large buds, every part of
the newly developed branch covered with the rusty pulverulent pubescence,
which under a lens appears beautifully stellate; the leaves when old 4-6
inches long and almost the same breadth, nearly glabrous above ; the numerous
primary veins strongly prominent beneath, running nearly straight
from the midrib to the margin, sending off a few unilateral branches ; the
very numerous secondary veins passing between the primary at right angles,
forming beautiful transverse reticulations. Cyme large and loose, flat: the
radiant sterile flowers an inch in diameter. Fruit nearly black when ripe.—
Hobble-bush.
12. V. molle (Michx.): leaves somewhat orbicular-cordate, plicate-sulcate,
toothed, nearly tomentose with a very soft pubescence underneath ; petioles
somewhat glandular; (cymes radiate ?) fruit oblong-ovate. Michx. ! Jl. 1.
p. 180 ; Pursh, jl. 1. p. 203. V. alnifolium, Marsh, arbust.p. 162.
Kentucky, around Danville, Michaux! “ Bark lacerate and deciduous
every year.” The specimen of Michaux’s herbarium is in fruit only, and
affords no evidence that the cymes were radiant; the leaves are erenately
toothed, and somewhat resemble one form of V. dentatum /3. scabrellum.
Pursh, who we presume knew nothing of Michaux’s plant, refers to it the V.
alnifolium of-Marshall, which may indeed be the same. We quote Marshall’s
account entire, and commend this obscure species to the botanists of
Kentucky, Tennessee, &c. “ This grows naturally in Carolina and other
parts of America; rising with a shrubby stalk to the height of 8 or 10 feet,
covered with a smooth purplish bark, and divided into several branches.
The leaves are heart-shaped, oval, sharp-pointed, deeply sawed on their
edges, strongly veined, and placed opposite on slender foot-stalks. The
flowers are collected in large cymes or umbels at the ends of the branches ;
those ranged on the border are male, but the centre is filled with hermaphrodite
flowers, which are succeeded by pretty large oval berries, red-colored
when ripe.” Marsh, arbust. Amer. p. 162.
O rd e r LXXIII. RÜBIACEÆ. fuss.
Tube of the calyx adherent to the ovary, or rarely partly or almost
completely free ; the limb mostly 4-5-cleft or toothed, sometimes obsolete.
Corolla inserted upon the summit of the calyx-tube, composed
of as many united petals as there are lobes of the calyx, valvate,
imbricate, or somewhat contorted in aestivation. Stamens inserted
into the tube of the corolla, equal in number and alternate with its
lobes (or very rarely fewer) : anthers introrse. Ovary 2-(rarely 3—
several-) celled, with 1-many ovules in each cell : style single or partly
divided : stigmas distinct or concrete. Fruit capsular, drupaceous,
baccate, or separable into indéhiscent carpels. Seeds anatropous or
amphitropous, solitary, few, or numerous in each cell. Embryo
straight or slightly curved, in the axis or at the extremity of copious
densely fleshy or horny albumen— Trees, shrubs, or herbs, with opposite,
or rarely verticillate, entire leaves. Stipules between the petioles,
sometimes simulating the leaves. Flowers regular. Inflorescence
various.
S ubo rd er I. S T E L L A T E . R . Br.
Leaves apparently (perhaps really ?) verticillate; but the whorls
generally supposed to consist of a pair of leaves and 1 to 3 leaf-shaped
stipules on each side, which however are only to be distinguished from
true leaves by their never bearing buds in their axils. E stiv a tio n of
the corolla valvate. Ovary entirely coherent with the tube of the
calyx. Fruit consisting of 2 united indehiscent (dry or baccate) 1-
seeded carpels.—Herbs, or rarely suffruticose plants, chiefly natives of
temperate or cold regions.
1. GALIUM. L in n .; Lam. ill. t. 60 ; Gcertn.fr. t. 24 ; A . Rich. Rubiac.
in mem. soc. hist. nat. Par. 5. p. 133 ; Endl. gen.p. 522.
Calyx-tube ovate-globose or oblong; the limb obsolete. Corolla rotate, 4-
(rarely 3-) parted. Stamens as many as the lobes of the corolla, short.