DIPSACE^E. (TEASEL FAMILY.) 229 



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

 leaves (entire or cut-lobed towards the base), and white or whitish 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 charac- 

 ters are only to be taken from the fruit. They all have a rather short corolla, 

 the limb of which is nearly regular. ( Name a diminutive of Valeriana.) 



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



V. OLIT6RIA, Poll. Fruit flattish, obliquely rhomboidal; empty cells as 

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

 Old fields, N. Y. to Penn. and La. (Nat. from Eu.) 



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

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



1 . V. chenopodifdlia, DC. Stems with long internodes and few forks ; 

 glomerate cymes few, slender-peduncled ; bracts broadly lanceolate ; fruit gla- 

 brous or pubescent, 2" long. (Fedia Fagopyrum, Torr. $ Gray.) Moist 

 grounds, western N. Y. to Minn., south to Va. and Ky. 



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



2. V. radiata, Dufr. Fruit ovate-tetragonal, downy-pubescent (sometimes 

 glabrous) ; empty cells as thick as the oblong-ovate fertile one, or thicker, a 

 broad shallow groove between them. (Fedia radiata, Michx.) Low grounds, 

 Penn. to Minn., Tex., and Fla. 



3. V. Stenocarpa, Krok. Fruit oblong-tetragonal, commonly glabrous ; 

 oblong fertile cell thicker than the linear-oblong approximate empty ones. 

 (Fedia stenocarpa, Engelm.) W. Mo. and E. Kan. to Tex. 



*--- Fertile cell much the narrowest, dorsally l-nerved ; section roundish. 



4. V. Woodsiana, Walp. Fruit \" long or more; fertile cell ovate, 

 tipped with a tooth ; empty ones inflated, with oblong depression (sometimes 

 an open cavity) in the middle. Moist grounds, N. Y. and Penn. to Tex. 



Var. umbilicata, Gray. Empty cells becoming confluent, vesicular by 

 incurvation of the circular margin, forming a deep and round umbilication. 

 (Fedia umbilicata, Sulliv.) N. Y. to Ohio and southward. 



Var. patellaria, Gray. Fruit saucer-shaped, emarginate at base and apex, 

 winged by the divergent cells. (Fedia patellaria, Sulliv.) Same range. 



ORDER 54. DIPSACEJE. (TEASEL FAMILY.) 



Herbs, with opposite or whorled leaves, no stipules, and the flowers in 

 dense heads, surrounded by an involucre, as in the Composite Family ; but 

 the stamens are distinct, and the suspended seed has albumen. Repre- 

 sented by the following introduced species and by the cultivated Sweet 

 Scabious (Scabiosa atropurpured). 



1. DIPSACUS, Tourn. TEASEL. 



Involucre many -leaved, longer than the chaffy leafy-tipped and pointed bracts 

 among the densely capitate flowers ; each flower with a 4-leaved calyx-like in- 

 volucel investing the ovary and fruit (achene). Calyx-tube coherent with the 

 ovary, the limb cup-shaped, without a pappus. Corolla nearly regular, 4-cleft. 

 Stamens 4, inserted on the corolla. Style slender. Stout and coarse bien- 



