50 VALERIANACEiE. Plectritis. 



with the habit of Fedia ; the stem simple or sparingly branched. Leaves 

 entire, oblong or obovate-spatulate, sessile. Flowers rose-color, aggregated 

 in verticillate glomerules, or capitate. Bracts subulate, verticillate and in- 

 volucellate, united at the base. 



The flowers are, we believe, all perfect and similar ; not monoecious, as stated by 

 De Candolle : the bracts are not multifid, but crowded and verticillate. 



1. P. congesta (DC.) : corolla manifestly bilabiate; the spur (or rather its 

 free portion) small, much shorter than the tube ; flowers in an oval or oblong 

 head, or often in verticillate (approximate or rather distant) glomerules.— 

 DC! I.e.; Hook.! fl. Bor.-Am. 1. p. 291. P. congesta & P. capitata, 

 Nutt. mss. Valerianella congesta, Lindl. ! hot. reg. t. 1095. V. parvi- 

 flora, Dougl. ined. (var. with smaller flowers and narrower leaves, Hook.) 



Banks of streams and moist rocks, along the Oregon, from the sea-shore to 

 the Wahlamet, Douglas ! Dr. Scouler ! Nuttall, Mr. Tolmie ! May-June.- 

 — Plant from 4 inches to 2 feet high. Corolla usually 3 or 4 lines long. 

 Ovary pubescent with, short thick hairs, but mostly glabrous when mature, 

 except along the face where it is shielded by the incurved wings. 



2. P. macrocera : limb of the corolla almost regular, small; the spur (or 

 rather its free portion) thick, longer than the tube; stem slender; flowers 

 capitate. — P. congesta (3. Hook. S^Arn.! hot. Beechey, suppl. p. 349, excl. 

 syn. 



California, Douglas ! — Upper leaves sometimes denticulate. Heads, and 

 especially the flowers, smaller than in the preceding ; the lobes of the corolla 

 much shorter. Ovary and fruit nearly or quite glabrous. — In P. congesta, 

 the gibbous portion of the corolla, which we should prefer to call an adnate 

 spur, is coherent with the proper (very slender) tube quite to the base of the 

 latter, whence it is produced into a rather slender, but short horn. In the 

 Californian species, on the contrary, the spur is free from at least the lower 

 half of the filiform tube ; but is nearly similar in form, except that the termi- 

 nation is more obtuse. 



3. FEDIA. Mcench ; Gcertn. Jr. t. 86 (excl. spec.) ; /. Woods, in Linn. 



trans. 17. p. 421, t. 21. 



Fedia & Valerianella, Mcench, DC. d^c. 

 Limb of the calyx toothed and persistent, or obsolete. Tube of the corolla 

 (sometimes gibbous) not spurred ; the limb 5-lobed, regular, or slightly irregu- 

 lar. Stamens 2 or 3. Stigma entire, or 2-3-lobed. Fruit 3-celled ; two of 

 the cells empty (sometimes confluent into one), the other 1 seeded. — Annual 

 nearly glabrous herbs, more or less dichotomous above. Leaver oblong or 

 linear, sessile, entire, or often toothed or incised near the base. Flowers in 

 glomerate or crowded cymules, white, rose-color, or purple. Bracts opposite, 

 or somewhat involucellate. — Corn-Salad. 



Our first section is almost exactly intermediate between Fedia and Valerianella of 

 Mcench and De Candolle ; having the corolla of the former, with the fruit, stamens, 

 and stigmas of the latter. 



§ 1. Tube of the corolla long and slender ; the limb slightly irregular: sta- 

 mens 3 ; stigma 3-cleft : fruit flattened fore and aft, with a somewhat ere- 

 scent-shaped transverse section ; the empty cells membranaceous, inflated, 

 separated and diverging, larger than the fertile cell. — Siphonella. 



