slender, some very rough, and some very smooth ; fruit of some
smooth, of others very hispid. The plants seem of little use,
except that the roots of some are employed by the aborigines to
dye red.
G. tinctorium, L ., and G. boreale, L ., are both used as yielding
from their roots a beautiful red.
G. asprellum. L. A very rough Bedstraw.
G. circtzzans. Mx. Liquorice. So called from its taste
resembling that of the true liquorice.
G. trijidum. L. Small Bedstraw. A small, scabrous plant.
G. aparine. L. From the Greek, to lay hold, because its
fruit is covered with hooked bristles, by which it adheres to man
and beast, for which the Greeks called it man-lover, and the English
call it cleavers ; and some call it goose-grass, because geese
feed on i t ; formerly used in Sweden as a strainer for milk ; purifying
to the blood, antiscorbutic ; roots dye red ; tinges the bones
of birds that eat it ; sometimes a troublesome weed ; prickles of
stem stand backwards, and leaves are 6 or 8 in a whorl, linear-
lanceolate, mucronate.
G. obtusum. Big. Obtuse-leafed, having a slender, much
branched, and diffuse stem, smooth ; leaves 4 in a whorl, linear-
lanceolate, very obtuse ; fruit globular, smooth ; banks of Muddy
Brook in Roxbury ; July. Big.
G. verum. L. Yellow Bedstraw. Conspicuous for its yellow
flowers ; stem erect, slender, pubescent; vicinity of Boston ;
probably not indigenous here as it is in Europe.
G. lanceolatum. Tor. Popularly called liquorice, from the
sweet taste of its stem and leaves. Stem erect; leaves lanceolate,
long, acuminate, and narrow ; flowers few, and fruit hispid.
G. trijlorum. Mx. Three-flowered ; has largish leaves, small
flowers, smoothish and procumbent stem ; fruit in a 3-rayed umbel
; woods ; July.
G. pilosum. Ait. Hairy Cleavers. Has purple flowers, and
a rough stem, one foot high ; leaves 4, in a whorl, very hairy
throughout, and fruit hairy ; woods ; July.
ORDER 195. A SCL E P IA D E iE . T he Milkweed T ribe,
Persistent calyx of 5 segments ; monopetalous corolla, 5-lobed
inferior, regular; stamens 5, inserted in the base of the corolla,
with 2-celled anthers; follicles 2, or 1 by abortion; plants commonly
milky ; flowers umbelled, fascicled, racemed. The properties
are generally acrid and stimulating, sometimes emetic ; the
milky juice commonly bitter, and .suspicious. The Cow-plant of
India, the milk of which is used as food by the natives, belongs
to this order. Only one genus of this order is found in this State.
A sclepias. L. 5. 2. Swallow-wort. Silkweed.
Named in honor of some Aesculapius, the name of many distinguished
physicians. About 50 species of this genus are known,
one half of which belong to North America ; 10 are credited to
Massachusetts. The plants are not of great consequence.
A. Syriaca. L. Common Silk Weed. Grows about woods
and fields, 2 - 4- feet high, with large oblong leaves, bearing its
seed attached to a long silky pappus or seed-down. The young
plant is eaten like asparagus ; a beautiful cape, made by sewing
the silky down upon cloth, was presented at the Berkshire Cattle-
show and Fair, and greatly admired.
A. incarnata. L. Distinguished for its umbels of beautiful
purple flowers ; in low grounds.
A • quadrifolia. L. Has four leaves in opposite pairs, and is
a delicate plant.