CLEAVERS

cleavers, or goose-grass, _galium aparine_ (natural order rubiaceae), a common plant in hedges and waste places, with a long, weak, straggling, four-sided, green stem, bearing whorls of 6 to 8 narrow leaves, 1⁄2 to 2 in. long, and, like the angles of the stem, rough from the presence of short, stiff, downwardly-pointing, hooked hairs. the small, white, regular flowers are borne, a few together, in axillary clusters, and are followed by the large, hispid, two-celled fruit, which, like the rest of the plant, readily clings to a rough surface, whence the common name. the plant has a wide distribution throughout the north temperate zone, and is also found in temperate south america.