52 VALERIANACEiE Fedia. 



flowers white. — F. radiata, Torr. ! fl. 1. p. 35, chiefly, not of Michx. Val- 

 erianella radiata, Beck, hot. p. 164, partly. 



Swampy shady grounds. Western part of the State of New York! to 

 Michigan! and apparently in Ohio and Kentucky. May. — Stem 6-18 

 inches high, dichotomous above, nearly glabrous. Leaves an inch or an 

 inch and a half long, slightly glaucous; the lowermost spatulate; the upper- 

 most lanceolate-oblong, freijuently but not unifurmly acutish. Bracts lanceo- 

 late, acute, with slightly scarious scarcely ciliate margins. Corolla larger 

 than in F. radiata, infundibuliform. Stigma thickened, nearly entire. Fruit 

 much larger than in F. radiata, li to 2 lines long, minutely puberulent when 

 young, but glabrous when mature, in shape resembling a grain of buck- 

 wheat, acutish, minutely and obtusely 1-3-toothed ; the fertile cell more than 

 twice the breadth of the two sterile ones taken together, broad and flat on the 

 back, the transverse section triangular with the anterior angle truncated and 

 excavated for the reception of the sterile cells, filled by the broad seed: the 

 empty cells taken together roundish, membranaceous, with the anterior- 

 groove very minute or none ; the dissepiment thin, and apparently often dis- 

 appearing. — A remarkable species in its fruit, which furnishes the chief char- 

 acters in this genus. We have specimens from Ohio and Kentucky, unfor- 

 tunately without fruit, which have just the flowers of this plant, but rather 

 larger leaves, all obtuse, inclined to be ciliate, and the upper often toothed at 

 the base : they will doubtless prove to belong to this species. 



• * * Fruit iwt thickened or corky at the back of the fertile cell ; the traTisverse section 

 somewhat orbicular or crescent-shaped : empty cells as large as or larger than the fer- 

 tile one, either contigumts or separated. — Platycoelae & Selenocoelae, DC. 



5. F. radiata (Michx.) : fruit ovoid, pubescent, obtusely and unequally 

 somewhat 4-angled, slightly 1-toothed at the summit; the empty cells con- 

 tiguous, but with, a rather deep groove between them, rather narrower than 

 the flattish fertile cell ; upper leaves often toothed ; flowers white. — Michx. ! 

 /. 1.^.18; Vahl. enu7n. 2. p. 21 ; Ell. sk. 1. p. 42. Valeriana locusta e. 

 radiata, Linn. spec. 1. p. 34 ? V. locusta, Walt. Car. p. 66. V. radiata, 

 Willd. I. c. ? Valerianella radiata, Dufrcsne, I. c. ? (ex syn.), not of DC. 



/3. ? leiocarpa : fruit ovoid-oblong, glabrous, the fertile cell rather narrow- 

 er in proportion. 



Low grounds and moist fields, Michigan, Dr. Pitcher ! to Florida ! and 

 Western Lousiana ! /3. North Carolina! — April- (March in the Southern 

 States) May. — Stem 3-12 inches high, often slightly pubescent. Leaves 

 mostly somewhat ciliate ; the lower oblong-spatulate ; the upper lanceolate- 

 oblong, obtuse, often coarsely toothed towards the base. Bracts lanceolate, 

 slightly ciliate. Flowers in dense cyraules, much smaller than in the pre- 

 ceding, white, or bluish-white ? Stigma with three short lobes. Fruit 

 scarcely a line long, clothed with a short somewhat deciduous pubescence, 

 slightly grooved on each side between the sterile and the fertile cell, and 

 with a pretty deep open groove between the two former, which however are 

 not at all divergent. — This species is without doubt indigenous; and indeed 

 is quite ditlercnt from any described foreign species, but it has sometimes 

 been confounded with the introduced F. olitoria. We are uncertain to which 

 the synonym of Clayton should be referred : the character ' floribus albis' 

 applies best to F. radiata; that of'semine compresso' to F. olitoria. — Our 

 var. ? leiocarpa has a narrower as well as smooth fruit, but we dare not con- 

 sider it a distinct species. 



6. F. Woodsiana: fruit subglobose-inflated, glabrous, very slightly 1- 

 toothed at the summit ; the empty cells separate from top to bottom, diverg- 

 ing, much inflated, their transverse section nearly orbicular, much larger 

 than the fertile cell, which is narrowly oblong and flattened on the back ; 



