Fedia. VALERIANACEiE. 61 



1. F. longiflora: tube of the corolla filiform, many times longer than the 

 limb or the ovary ; fruit with a nearly orbicular outline, nearly glabrous, 

 minutely 3-toothed at the summit ; the teeth which crown the empty cells 

 obscure and incurved; flowers in glomerate cymules; bracts lanceolate, 

 glandularly fimbriate-serrulate ; lower leaves oblong-spatulate ; the upper 

 linear-oblong, entire. — Plectritis longiflora, Nutt. ! mss. 



Plains of Arkansas, Nuttall /—Plant glabrous, 6-12 inches high; the stem 

 several times dichotomous above. Leaves about an inch long. Corolla 

 about half an inch long ; the (purplish) filiform tube not at all gibbous, 

 abruptly dilated at the summit into a very small slightly ringent (white) 

 limb. Stamens and style exserted. Empty cells of the fruit separate from 

 top to bottom, almost lateral, much larger than the somewhat cartilaginous 

 fertile cell. 



2. F. Nuttallii: tube of the corolla slender, twice or thrice the length of 

 the limb, furnished with a small callous gibbosity above the middle ; fruit 

 with a nearly orbicular outline, very glabrous, minutely 3-toothed at the 

 summit ; flowers in capitate cymules ; bracts ovate-lanceolate, glandularly 

 serrulate ; leaves entire, short, obovate-spalulate ; the uppermost oblong. — 

 Plectritis spathulata, Nutt. ! mss. 



Plains of Arkansas, with the preceding, (which it resembles,) Nuttall .'— 

 Tube of the (white) corolla shorter, and the limb larger in proportion. Fruit 

 very similar to the preceding, immature in the specimen, flattened, concavo- 

 convex or lunulate. 



§ 2. Corolla with a short tube and a regular limb : stamer-. 3 ; stigma 2-cleft 

 or entire: empty cells of the fruit membranaceous and inflated, or sometimes 

 nerviform. — Valerianella, Moench, DC. 



* Fruit with a gibbous corhj or spo7igymas$ at the back of the fertile cell; the empty 

 cells large, sometimes confluent. — Locustae, DC. 



3. F. olitoria (Vahl.) : fruit compressed, oblique, at length broader than 

 long, glabrous ; the calyx teeth obscure or none ; the partition between the 

 empty cells often imperfect ; radical leaves petioled ; flowers pale blue. — 

 Vahl, enum. l.f. 19 ; /. Woods, in Linn, trans. 17.^. 430, t. 24, f. 1. (fr.) 

 F. caerulea, Aikin! in Eaton, man. toi., under Valerianella. F. radiata, 

 Bart, compend. 7 Valeriana locusta a. olitoria, Linn. V. olitoria, Willd. 

 spec. 1. p. 182. Valerianella olitoria, Mcench, meth. p. 493 ; " Dufresne, 



Valer.p. 56, t. 3, f 8"; DC. prodr. 4. p. 625. V. radiata, DC I. c. ; 

 Darlingt.fl. Cest. p. 11 (chiefly); not Fedia radiata, Michx. V. rhombi- 

 carpa, Aikin! cat. Baltimore plants. 



Fields, Maryland and Virginia, Dr. Aikin ! New Orleans, Drummond. 

 Doubtless introduced from Europe. June.— Plant 4-10 inches high, dicho- 

 tomous ; the angles of the stem pubescent. Upper leaves sparingly toothed 

 at the base, ciliate, as also the bracts. Flowers smaller than in V. radiata, 

 in small glomerules. Stigma of three very small linear-oblong lobes. 

 Transverse section of the fruit elliptical ; the spongy mass often nearly as 

 large as the empty cells. 



* * Fruit triquetrous, not grooved between the {at length confluent ?) empty cells, which 

 farm the anterior angle, and are much smaller than the fertile one ; tlie latter not 

 thickened at the bach — Trigonoccelse. 



4. F. Fagopyrum : fruit triangular, with an ovate outline, nearly glabrous 

 when mature, obsoletely 2-3-toothed at the apex ; the lateral angles acute, 

 the anterior somewhat obtuse ; upper leaves mostly entire and rather acute ; 



