218 VALERIAN FAMILY. 



LIX. VALERIANACEJE, VALERIAN FAMILY. 



Herbs, with opposite leaves, no stipules, calyx coherent with 

 the ovary, which has only one fertile, one-ovuled cell but two 

 abortive or empty ones, and stamens always fewer than the 

 lobes of the tubular or funnel-form corolla (1-3, distinct), and 

 inserted on its tube. Style slender ; stigmas 1-3. Fruit small 

 and dry, indehiscent; the single hanging seed with a large 

 embryo and no albumen. Flowers small, in clusters or cymes. 



* Lobes of the calyx many and slender, but hardly seen when in flower, being rolled 

 up inwards around the base of the corolla ; in fruit they unroll and appear as 

 long plumose bristles, resembling a pappus, like thistle-down. 



1. VALERIANA. Corolla with narrow or funnel-form tube usually gibbous at the base 



on one side, but not spurred, its 5 spreading lobes almost equal. Stamens 8. Akene 

 1-celled, the minute empty cells early disappearing. Root strong-scented. 



* * Lobes of the calyx of a few short teeth or mostly hardly any. 



2. VALERIANELLA. Corolla funnel-form, with 5 equal or rather unequal spreading 



lobes. Stamens mostly 3. Akene-like fruit with one fertile and two empty cells, or 

 the latter confluent into one. 



1. VALERIANA, VALERIAN. (Name obscure.) Flowers early 

 summer, often dioecious, white or purplish. ^ 



* Hoot fibrous or rhizomatous ; leaves rather thin. 

 H- Garden species from Eu., producing the medicinal Valerian-root. 



V. officinal is, Linn. The commonest in gardens ; 2-3 high, a little 

 downy, with leaves of 11 to 21 lanceolate or oblong cut-toothed leaflets, 

 and rootstocks not running. 



V. Phi), Linn. Smooth, with root leaves simple, stem leaves of 5-7 

 entire leaflets or lobes, and rootstock horizontal. 



H- *- Wild species N. and chiefly W. ; all rather rare or local. 



V. paucifldra, Michx. l-2 high, smooth, with thin ovate and 

 heart-shaped toothed root leaves, stem leaves of 3-7 ovate leaflets ; flowers 

 rather few in the crowded panicled cyme ; corolla long and slender. 

 Woodlands, Penn. to 111. and S. W. 



V. sylvatica, Banks. Root leaves mostly ovate or oblong and entire, 

 stem leaves with 5-11 lance-oblong or ovate almost entire leaflets ; corolla 

 funnel-form. Cedar swamps N. 



* * Root a spindle-shaped tuber ; leaves thickish, more simple. 



V. (Sdulis, Nutt. l-4 high, the large root eaten by the Indians W.; 

 leaves mostly from the root and minutely woolly on the edges, those of 

 the root lanceolate or spatulate, of the stem cut into 3-7 long and narrow 

 divisions. Alluvial ground from O. W. 



2. VALERIANELLA (or FEDIA), CORN SALAD, LAMB'S LET- 

 TUCE. (Diminutive of Valeriana.} Our species are all very much 

 alike in appearance, smooth, with forking stems <5 / -20' high ; tender, 



