BEDSTRAW, Gallant, a genus of plants beloning to the natural order rubiacecr (q.v.), and distinguished by a small wheel-shaped calyx, and a dry two-lobed fruit, each lobe containing a single seed. The leaves, as in the rest of the order, are whorled, and the flowers minute; but in many of the species the panicles are so large and many-flowered that they are amongst the ornaments of the banks and other situations in which they grow. the species are very numerous, natives chiefly of the colder parts of the northern hemisphere, or of mountainous regions within or near the tropics. About 16 species are found in Britain, some of them very common weeds. Amongst these is the YE Low B. (G. rerunt)—sometimes called CHEESE RENNET, because it has the property of curdling milk, and is used for that purpose—a small plant with linear deflexed leaves and dense panicles of bright yellow ,flowers, very abundant on dry banks. The flower ing tops, boiled in alum, afford a (lye of a bright yellow color, much used in Iceland; and the Highlanders of Scotland have long been accustomed to employ the roots, and espe cially the bark of them, for dying yarn red. They are said to yield a red color fully equal to that of madder, and the cultivation of the plant has been attempted in England.
The roots of other species of the same genus possess similar properties, as those of G. tinctoriant, a species abundant in low marshy grounds in Canada; and those of G. sep tentrionale, another North American species, used by some of the Indian tribes. Like madder, they possess the property of imparting a red color to the bones and milk of ani mals which they upon them. Medicinal virtues have been ascribed to some of the species, as G. rigidant and G. which have been extolled as useful in epilepsy.—The roasted seeds of some, as G. aparine, the troublesome goosegrass, or clearers, of our hedges —remarkable for the hooked prickles of its stem, leaves, and fruit—have been recom mended as a substitute for coffee; but it does not appear that they contain any principle analogous to caffeine. This plant is a native of the northern parts equally of Europe, Asia, and America. Its expressed juice is in sonic countries a popular remedy for cuta neous disorders.—The roots of G. taberosunt are farinaceous, and it is cultivated in China for food.—Th2 milli: B. is supposed to be derived from the ancient employment of some of the species, the herbage of which is soft and fine, for strewing beds.