[Illustration: FIG. 40.--WHORL OF LEAVES OF BEDSTRAW. (_Galium vernum._)]
All the plants in this division of Rubiaceæ agree with the common Bedstraw (_Galium vernum_) in the formation of their leaves and stem; but the species of Galium are distinguished by the margins of the leaves and the principal veins, in nearly all the species, being covered with prickles, which in some cases point forwards, and in others are bent back, so as to catch everything they touch. This is particularly the case with the leaves of the plant called Goose-grass, or Cleavers (_Galium aparine_); and its fruit is covered with hooked bristles, which take so firm a hold as to make it difficult to separate them from anything they have caught hold of. The pretty little weed called Field Madder (_Sherardia arvensis_), the fragrant Woodruff, (_Asperula odorata_), and _Rubia peregrina_, the only British species of Madder, all agree with Galium in its more important characters; and as they are all common weeds, my readers will probably find it interesting to trace the differences between them. Galium and Rubia agree in having scarcely any limb to the calyx, and a rotate corolla; but the limb, which is only four-parted, or even three-parted, in Galium, has always five lobes in Rubia; there are also five stamens in Rubia, and the fruit is a berry; whereas there are only four stamens in Galium, and the fruit is dry. Sherardia agrees with Asperula in having a funnel-shaped corolla with a four-cleft limb; but in Sherardia the limb of the calyx remains on as a crown to the fruit, while in Asperula it drops off. In Sherardia there is only one style with a two-lobed stigma; and in Asperula there are two styles united at the base.
There is a very pretty plant called _Crucinella stylosa_, which has lately been much cultivated in gardens, and which belongs to this order. This plant has large heads of pretty pink flowers, each of which has a funnel-shaped corolla, with a long tube concealing the anthers, but beyond which the style projects so far as to give rise to the specific name of _stylosa_. The stigma in this plant is clavate, that is, club-shaped, and it is cleft in two, though the lobes are not spreading.