382 Valerianaceae 



Family 91. VALERIANACEAE. VALERIAN 

 FAMILY. 



Herbs with opposite exstipulate leaves, and usually 

 small perfect or polygamous flowers, in corymbed, 

 panicled or capitate cymes. Calyx-tube adnate to 

 the ovary, its limb inconspicuous or none in flower, 

 becoming prominent in fruit. Corolla epigynous, some- 

 what irregular, its tube narrow, sometimes gibbous or 

 spurred at base ; limb spreading, mostly 5-lobed. Sta- 

 mens 1-4, inserted on the corolla and alternate with 

 its lobes. Ovary inferior, 1-3-celled, 1 of the cells 

 containing a single suspended ovule, the others empty. 

 Fruit indehiscent, dry, containing a single suspended 

 seed. 



1. PLECTBITIS DC. 



Annual herbs with simple or rarely with very slen- 

 der branches and usually entire leaves, the cauline 

 commonly sessile. Flowers small, borne in glomerules 

 at the end of the stem or branches, or the glomerules 

 in interrupted or dense spikes. Calyx-limb obsolete. 

 Corolla usually pink, more or less bilabiate, spurred 

 or gibbous at base. Wings of the fruit commonly in- 

 curved and forming a circular hollow or cavity on the 

 side. 



1. P. minor (Hook.). Slender, 1-2 dm. high; leaves linear 

 or narrowly oblong; corolla about 2 mm. long ; the spur 

 longer than the tube ; fruit more or less hispid, dorsally carinate ; 

 the carina 2-grooved ; lateral wings broad, each with a more or 

 less obvious lobe at apex, spreading or incurved. ( Valerianella 

 macrocera Gray; P. congesta minor Hook.) 



Occasional on shady hillsides. March. 



