CLEAVERS or GOOSE-GRASS, Galium Aparine (family Rubiaceae), a common plant in hedges and waste places, with a long, weak, straggling, four-sided, green stem, bearing whorls of six to eight narrow leaves, to gin. 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 From this it will be seen that the F (bass) and G (treble or violin) clefs are the lower and upper five lines respectively and that the C clef (variously known as the tenor or alto clef, accord ing to the particular line on which it is placed) consists of five lines taken from the middle ; for it should be explained further that "clef" signifies not only the individual sign but also the group of lines on which it stands, although strictly speaking "stave" is here the more accurate term.
In pianoforte, vocal and most other scores, only the F and G clefs are nowadays used, but the C clef is still retained for the viola and one or two other instruments, the choice of the particular clef used being governed, as it will be understood, by the pitch and compass of the instrument written for, the object aimed at being to include as much of the music as possible within the limits of a five-line stave. It will also be understood that in prac tice the middle line of the Great Stave is normally omitted, a short additional line known as a leger (or ledger) line being employed to take its place when the intermediate C is required— It may be noted further that the clef signs as we now know them are simply much modified and conventionalized forms of the letters of the three notes which they stand for—F, C and G. (See MUSICAL NOTATION.)