762 VALERIANACEAE (VALERIAN FAMILY) 



mens 3. — Perennial herbs, with thickened strong-scented roots, and simple or 

 pinnate leaves. Flowers in many species imperfectly dioecious or dimorphous. 

 (A mediaeval Latin name of uncertain origin.) 



* Root spindle-shaped, large and deep, L5-3 dm. long ; leaves thickish. 



1. V. edulis Nutt. Smooth, or minutely downy when very young; stem 

 straight, 8-12 dm. high, few-leaved ; leaves commonly minutely and densely 

 ciliate, the basal spatulate and lanceolate, the cauline pinnately parted into 

 3-7 long and narrow divisions ; flowers in a long and slender interrupted panicle, 

 nearly "dioecious ; corolla whitish, obconical, 4 mm. long. — Wet plains and 

 prairies, 0. and Ont. to la., Minn., and westw. ; sometimes cultivated, and 

 escaping eastw. May, June. 



* * Root fibrous ; leaves thin ; stems 3-L5 dm. high. 



2. V. uliginbsa (T. & G.) Rydb. (vSwamp V.) Smooth or minutely pubes- 

 cent ; root-l(^avrs ovate or oblong, entire, rarely with small lobes ; stem-leaves 

 pinnate, with 7-15 oblong-ovate or lanceolate nearly entire leaflets; cyme at 

 first close, many-flowered; corolla inversely conical, 6 mm. long, rose-color or 

 white. ( V. sylvatica Man. ed. 6, not Banks.) — Wet ground, chiefly under Arbor 

 Vitae and Larch, e. Que. to w. Ont., s. to Me., Vt., s. N. Y., and Mich. June- 



Aug. 



3. V. officinXlis L. (Garden Heliotrope.) Coarse, somewhat pubes- 

 cent, especially at the nodes ; leaves all pinnate, with many lanceolate leaflets ; 

 cyme many-flowered ; corolla white or rose-color, 4 mm. long. — Roadsides and 

 thickets, N. E. to N. J. and O. ; escaped from cultivation. (Nat. from Eu.) 



4. V. pauciflbra Michx. Smooth, slender, surculose ; root-leaves ovate, 

 heart-shaped, toothed, pointed, sometimes with 2 small lateral divisions ; stem- 

 leaves pinnate, with 3-7 ovate toothed leaflets ; branches of the panicled cyme 

 few-flowered ; tube of the pale pink corolla slender, 1 cm. long. — Woods and 

 alluvial banks, Fa. to s. 111., Mo., and Tenn. June. 



2. VALERIANELLA [Tourn.] Hill. Corn Salad. Lamb's Lettuce 



Limb of the calyx obsolete or merely toothed. Corolla fuimel-form or salver- 

 form, equally or unequally 5-lobed. Stamens 3, rarely 2. Fruit 3-celled, two 

 of the cells empty and sometimes confluent into one, the other 1-seeded. — An- 

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

 succulent leaves (entire or cut-lobed toward the base), and white or pale 

 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 char- 

 acters are to be taken only from the fruit. (Name a diminutive of Valeriana.) 



§ 1. Corolla nearly regular, funnel-form; the tube short ; fruit with 2 empty 

 cells manifest, or often enlarged and closed, sometimes confluent into 1 cell. 



* Corolla bluish ; fruit with a corky mass at the back of the fertile cell. 



1. V. LocusTA (L.) Betcke. Fruit flattish, obliquely rhomboidal ; empty cells 

 as large as the fertile, contiguous, the thin partition at length breaking uj). 

 iV. olitoria Poll.) — Old fields anrl waste places. Me. to w. N. Y., Ont., and 

 southw. — Sometimes cultivated for .salad. (Introd. from Eu.) 



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



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



2. V. chenopodif51ia (Pursh) DC. Stems with long internodes and few 

 forks ; glomerate cymes few, slender-peduncled ; bracts broadly lanceolate ; 

 fruit glabrous or pubescent, 4 mm. long. — Moi.st grounds, w. N. Y. to Minn., 

 8. to Va. and Ky. 



-t- -t- Fertile cell as broad as the empty ones, beaked; cross-section quadrate. 



3. V. radiata (L. ) Dufr. Fruit ovate-tetragonal, do?rn?/-p7<^e.sc<?7i«; empty 

 cells as thick as tiie oblong-ovate fertile one, or thicker, a broad shallow groove 



