124 FLOWERING PLANTS OF THE RIVIERA 



Rocks, walls, railway and other dry banks, etc., common. March- July, and 

 indeed almost all the year in certain places. In places this plant grows in great 

 quantity, and forms brilliant masses of colour. 



C. Calcitrapa DC. Annual, glabrous, green or reddish ; stem slender, 6-18 

 in. Leaves pinnatifid, lower ones entire or lyrate. Corolla slightly gibbous, 

 hardly spurred. Flowers rose, in small unilateral and then divaricate panicles. 

 Fruit glabrous or hispid. 



Dry stony places, rocks, and slopes. May, June. 



C. angustifolius DC., with linear entire leaves, grows in the lower 

 Maritime Alps on sunny slopes of de'bris. June-July. 



VALERIANA L. VALERIAN. 



V. officinal is L. Common Valerian. Plant glabrous, 2^-4 ft. high. Lower 

 leaves pinnatisect, with 15-21 lanceolate, almost equal segments. Flowers pale 

 pink, hermaphrodite, uniform in shape, in large corymbs. 



Shady places in the lower Maritime Alps. June-August. 



V. tuberosa L. Tuberous Valerian. Plant glabrous, with thick tuberous 

 root, and no stolons, 6-12 in. high. Lower leaves oboval or elliptic, obtuse, entire, 

 petioled ; stem-leaves subsessile, pinnatisect, with 5-9 segments, the terminal 

 the largest. Flowers pink, polygamous, in short, contracted corymbs. 



Rocks and shady places in the hills. April-June. 



V. tripteris L. with greyish coarsely toothed leaves, and V. montana L. 



with bright green, shining leaves, grow in shady or damp places in the Maritime 

 Alps, the former being common in the mountain woods. 



VALERIANELLA L. (all annual weeds). 



V. echinata DC. Plant 6-12 in. high, glabrous. Leaves sinuate-toothed 

 or incised. Limb of calyx formed of 3 conical horns, unequal, arched outwards. 

 Flowers very small, pink. The fruit of 2 kinds, linear and straight, and the 

 upper ones oblong, with 3 obtuse angles. 



Stony fields. April-June. 



V. Olitoria Poll. Lamb's Lettuce. Fruit almost orbicular in outline, rather 

 broader than long, with a longitudinal furrow and 2 ribs on either side, the bract 

 swollen and spongy. Flowers very small, bluish ; upper leaves usually entire. 



Cultivated ground. March-May. 



V. eriocarpa Desv. Limb of calyx as long as fruit, obliquely truncate with 

 5-7 large teeth ; fruit with a rib on each side, and on the face an oval depression 

 enclosed by 2 prominent ribs and divided by a nerve. Stems stiff, rather thick. 



Cultivated ground. April-June. 



V. truncata Belcke. Differs from the last in the limb of calyx being as 

 long as the fruit, and much more obliquely truncate and scarcely toothed. 



Cultivated ground and dry gravelly places in the littoral and lower mountain 

 regions of Alpes-Marit. and Liguria. May. Rare in the Var. 



V. Morisonii DC. = V. dentata Poll. Bracts scarcely as long as ripe 

 fruit ; limb of calyx small, much shorter than fruit, obliquely truncate and acute. 

 Fruit with a narrow longitudinal rib on back and each side. 



Cornfields, etc. May-June. Less common in the Var than the sub-species 

 V. microcarpaLois., the fruit of which has finely ciliate borders, limb of calyx 

 acute and the fruit has curved hairs. May-June. 



V. carinata Lois. Keeled Corn-salad. Fruit oblong, somewhat 4-sided, 

 with prominent rib on back ending in a short tooth, and face divided by deep 

 longitudinal furrow. 



Fields and uncultivated ground. April-June. 



V. COronata DC. Fruit crowned by large limb of calyx which is glabrous, 

 reticulated and divided into 6 triangular lobes ending in a hooked awn. 

 Cultivated or waste ground, April-July. 



