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Small Bedstraw

Galium trifidum. Madder Family.

Stems.--Weak; five to twenty inches high; rough. Leaves.--In whorls of four to six. Flowers.--White; small; one to seven in a cluster. Calyxteeth.--Obsolete. Corolla.--Three or four-parted. Stamens.--Three or four. Pistil.--One, with two styles. Fruit.--Globular; smooth; separating when ripe into two parts. Very common in wet places is the small bedstraw. From its relative, cleavers or goose-grass, it may be distinguished by its smooth fruit, and by the number of leaves in a whorl.