DIPSACEiE. (teasel FAMILY.) 229 



biennials, usually smooth, with forking stems, tender and rather succulent 

 leaves (entire or cut-lobed towards the base), and white or wliitish cymose- 

 clustered and bracted small flowers. — Our species all have the limb of the 

 calyx obsolete, and are so much alike in aspect, flowers, etc., that good charac- 

 ters are only to be taken from the fruit. They all have a rather short corolla, 

 the limb of which is nearly regular. (Name a diminutive of Valeriana.) 



* Corolla bli'Ash ; fruit with a corkji mass at the back of the fertile cell. 



V. olit6ria, Poll. Fruit flattish, obliquely rhomboidal; empty cells as 

 large as the fertile, contiguous, the thin partition at length breaking up. — 

 Old fields, X. Y. to Penn. and J^a. (Xat. from Eu.) 



-* * Corolla white ; no corky mass behind the fertile cell. 



•*- Fertile cell broader than the empty ones ; cross-section of fruit triangular. 



1. V. chenopodifolia, DC. Stems with long internodes and few forks ; 

 glomerate cymes few, slender-peduncled ; bracts broadly lanceolate ; fruit gla- 

 brous or pubescent, 2" long. (Fedia Fagopyrum, Torr. S)- Gray.) — Moist 

 grounds, western N. Y. to ^linn., south to Va. and Ky. 



•*- H- Fertile cell as broad as the empty ones, beaked ; cross-section quadrate. 



2. V. radi^ta, Dufr. Fruit ovate-tetragonal, downy -pubescent (sometimes 

 glabrous) ; empty cells as thick as the oblong-ovate fertile one, or thicker, a 

 broad shallow groove between them. (Fedia radiata, Michx.) — Low grounds, 

 Penn. to Minn., Tex., and Fla. 



3. V. Stenocarpa, Krok. Fruit oblong-tetragonal, commonly glabrous ; 

 oblong fertile cell thicker than the linear-oblong approximate empty ones. 

 (Fedia stenocarpa, Fngelm.) — W. Mo. and E. Kan. to Tex. 



-«-•»--»- Fertile cell much the narrowest, dorsally 1-nerved ; section roundish. 



4. V. Woodsiana, Walp. Fruit 1" long or more; fertile cell ovate, 

 tipped with a tooth ; empty ones inflated, with oblong depression (sometimes 

 an open cavity) in the middle. — Moist grounds, N. Y. and Penn, to Tex 



Var. umbilicata, Oray. Empty cells becoming confluent, vesicular by 

 incurvation of the circular margin, forming a deep and round umbilication. 

 (Fedia umbilicata, Sulliv.) — X. Y. to Ohio and southward. 



Var. patellaria, Gray. Fruit saucer-shapecr, emarginate at base and apex, 

 winged by the divergent cells. (Fedia patellaria, Sulliv.) — Same range. 



Order 54. DIPSACE^E. (Teasel Family.) 



Herbs, icith opposite or ichorled leaves, no stipules, and the flovers in 

 dense heads, surrounded hy an involucre, as in the Composite P'amily ; hut 

 the stamens are distinct, and the suspended seed has albumen. — Repre- 

 sented by the following introduced species and by the cultivated Sweet 

 Scabious (Scabiosa atropurpurea). 



1. DIPSACUS, Tourn. Teasel. 



Involucre many-leaved, longer than the chaffy leafy-tipped and pointed bracts 

 among the densely capitate flowers; each flower with a 4-leaved calyx-like in- 

 Yolucel investing the ovary and fruit (achene). Calyx-tube coherent with the 

 ovary, the limb cup-shaped, witliout a pappus. Corolla nearly regular, 4-cleft. 

 Stamens 4, inserted on the 'corolla. Style slender. — Stout and coarse bien- 



