There are many kinds of Galium, widely distributed; sometimes shrubs;
stems square; leaves in whorls, without stipules; flowers small,
usually perfect, in clusters; calyx usually with no border; corolla
wheel-shaped, four-lobed; stamens four, short; ovary two-lobed; styles
two, short, with round-top stigmas; fruit dry or fleshy, consisting
of two similar, rounded parts, each with one seed. The common name,
Bed-straw, comes from a tradition that the manger of the Infant Christ
was filled with these plants. Other names are Goose-grass and Cleavers.
[Sidenote: =Northern Bed-straw=
_Gàlium boreàle_
=White
Summer
Northwest, etc.=]
A rather attractive, smooth, perennial, with a stout, leafy stem,
sometimes branching, and the leaves in fours, with three veins, the
margins sometimes rough and hairy. The small flowers are white and so
numerous as to be quite pretty. The fruit is small, at first bristly,
but smooth when ripe. This grows in northern mountains across the
continent, also in Europe and Asia, up to ten thousand feet.