GALLIUM, LADY'S BED-STRAW; a genus of the monogynia order, belonging to the tetrandria class of plants. There are a great many species, of which the most remarkable is the verum, or yellow lady's bed-straw. It grows commonly in dry ground, and on road-sides. The flowers will coagulate boiling milk; and the best Cheshire cheese is said to be prepared with them. The French prefer them in hysterics and epileptic cases. Boiled in alum-water, they tinge wool yellow. The roots dye a red not inferior to madder; for which purpose they are used in the island of Jura.—In the Edinburgh medical commentaries we have accounts of some violent scorbutic complaints being cured by the juice of this plant.—Sheep and goats eat the plant; horses and swine refuse it; cows are not fond of it.