Valeriana. VALERIANACE^. 49 . 



with linear segments ; panicle elongated ; the peduncles ternately verticil- 

 late; flowers white {Hook.) ; " fruit ovate, compressed, pubescent ; the limbj 

 of the calyx at length evolved in a plumose crown of about 15 sets." Nutt.-— 

 Patrinia ceratophyila, Hook. fl.. Bor.-Am. 1. ])• 290. 



Interior of Oregon from Wallawallah and Kettle Falls, to the vallies of 

 the Rocky Mountains, Douglas, Nuttall. — " Stem about a foot, or in the 

 plains of the Rocky Mountains only 3-4 inches high. Flowers small, white, 

 in paniculated clusters. Leaves thin and membranaceous. Fruit one- 

 celled." Nutt. — This is one of tlie numerous plants, the roots of which fur- 

 nish food to the aborigines of the country. The thick and fusiform black 

 root, although bitter and apparently pernicious, when baked on heated stones 

 or steamed under ground is converted into a pulpy mass, sweet and rather 

 agreeable to the taste, and not unwholesome. Dougl., Nutt. — The following 

 is evidently an allied species. 



6. V. ciliata : stem very glabrous, striate, simple ; leaves somewhat 

 fleshy, glabrous, densely ciliate ; the radical ones entire, spatulate-lanceolate, 

 tapering into a slender sheathing base ; some of them often pinnately 5-7- 

 parted, with the segments linear or lanceolate ; the cauline few (1-2 pairs), 

 sessile, pinnately 3-9-parted ; the segments linear ; flowers in an elongated 

 compound panicle ; corolla very short, obconical-campanulate (greenish- 

 white) ; fruit ovate, compressed, 3-ribbed on one side, 1 -ribbed on the other ; 

 limb of the calyx at length evolved in a plumose crown of about 12 elonga- 

 ted setae. — V. n. sp., Sullivant ! cat. Ohio plants. Patrinia longifolia, Mac- 

 Nab, in Edinb. j^hil.jour. 19. p . . ? 



Swamps and wet alluvial prairies, "near Springfield, Ohio, Mr. WiU 

 liams,''^ Mr. Sullivant ! Urbana, Ohio, Mr. Samjdes I Milwaukie County, 

 Wisconsin, Mr. Lapham! On the Maitland River, near Goderich, Upper 

 Canada, Mr. J. Macnah (1834). June. — Root fusiform, often 6 to 12 inches 

 long, resembling that of the carrot in color and appearance, except that it is 

 inclined to become horizontal and branched below, bitter and somewhat aro- 

 matic to the taste, mucilaginous. {Mr. Samples, Mr. Sullivant.) Stem 1-3 

 or even 4 feet high in fruit, sometimes leafless. Leaves dark green ; the 

 radical ones 4 to 9 inches long, clustered ; the veins somewhat parallel, but 

 reticulated. Panicle at length elongated to a foot or more ; the primary 

 branches rather remote, elongated ; the flowers, as usual in the genus, at 

 first glomerate, but loose in fruit. — The Patrinia longifolia of MacNab was 

 doubtless founded upon a small and immature specimen of this interesting 

 plant. That specific name is pre-occupied in Valeriana. 



X Doubtful Species. 



7. V. (Phyllactis) obovata (Nutt.) : stemless; root fusiform; leaves radia- 

 ting, linear-spatulate, obtuse, hirsute-pilose. Nutt. gen. 1. p.2i (under Phyl- 

 lactis) ; Schult. mant. 1. p. 214 ; DC. prodr. 4. p. 632. 



Bare hills around the Arikaree village. Upper Missouri. — The expanded 

 flowers, fruit &c., unknown. Nuttall. — A very doubtful plant. 



2. PLECTRITIS. Lindl. bot. reg. t. 1095 (§ of Valerianella) ; DC. 

 mem. Valer. S^' j^rodr. 4. p. 631. 



Limb of the calyx truncate, entire, almost none. Tube of the corolla gib- 

 bous anteriorly, spurred at the base ; the limb 5-cleft, more or less bilabiate. 

 Stamens 3. Stigma capitate. Fruit with a somewhat coriaceous triangular 

 fertile cell; the two empty ones open from top to bottom! each forming an 

 involute wing. — Annual glabrous herbs (natives of Oregon and California), 



VOL. II.-7 



