re 



26. DiPSACEJi. 



^ 



- eriocurpa. 



Valerianella truncata. 



1. Valerianella truncata, Betcke. Small hairy 

 annual, with erect 6-ribbecl stems and forked branches ; 

 leaves oblong, stem - clasping. 

 the npper ones sometimes 

 with 1 or 2 teeth near the base ; 

 flowers pale-pnrple, in dense 

 flat-topped heads, snrronnded 

 by lanceolate, ciliate bracts, 

 and supported on 2 st-ont 

 peduncles, in the fork of 

 which is produced 1 early 

 flower and fruit : calyx-liml) 

 netveined as long and as broad 

 as the fruit, cut obliquely 

 so that the posterior tooth 

 takes the shape of a pointed 

 ear, the other teeth almost 

 obsolete ; fruit ovoid, downy, 

 with an oval depression in 

 front, the 2 .sterile cells re- 

 duced to narrow channels within 

 the 2 longitudinal ribs which 

 surround the depression. 



Fields along Glynde Road. — 

 Oct. - Nov. — Mediterranean re- 

 gion. 



2. V. eriocarpa, Desvaux. Differs from the pre- 

 ceding only in the calyx, whose limb forms an oblique 

 crown, with 5 or 6 teeth. 



Waterfall Gully.— Oct. -Nov. — Mediterranean region. 



3. V. diSCOidea, Loiseleur. Like the preceding in 

 habit, but the lower leaves are coarsely toothed and the 

 upper ones toothed or pinnatifid with linear lobes ; flowers 

 purplish in dense heads which become globular, on short 



fieduncles and surrounded by oval, ciliate bracts; calyx- 

 imb cut almost to the base into 6 (rarely 5) lanceolate, 

 spreading, hooked teeth, which are sometimes unequally 

 bifid; fruit tomentose, obconical, subquadrangular, with an 

 oval depression in front, the 2 sterile cells as large as the 

 fertile one. 



Fields along Glynde Road. — Oct. -Nov. — Mediterranean 

 region. 



Family 26. DIPSACEi«. 



Heads resembling those of Comjjosifc in the flowers 

 seated on a common receptacle surrounded l)y an involucre 

 of bracts, but the anthers are 4 in number and free, and 

 the calyx of each flower is double and persistant, the outer 

 one (inrohicrl or calicle) with a tube closely surrounding 

 the fruit and marked Avith furrows and ribs, the inner one 

 (calyx proper) combined with the fruit, narrowed into a 



