128 VALERIANACE^E. (VALERIAN FAMILY.) 



M- *+ Flowers few in number and scattered. 



5. G. bifolilim, Watson. Smooth and glabrous, a span or two high, 

 sparingly branched, slender : leaves oblanceolate to nearly linear, 4 in the 

 whorls, the alternate ones smaller, or uppermost nearly reduced to a single pair : 

 flowers on solitary naked peduncles : fructiferous peduncles about the length of 

 the leaves, horizontal, and the minutely hispidulous fruit decurved on the naked 

 tip. Bot. King Exp. 134. Mountains of W. Colorado and S. Montana to 

 California. 



6. G. trifldum, L. Weakly erect, branching, 5 to 20 inches high, 

 smooth and glabrous, except the retrorsely scabrous angles of the stem and 

 usually more hispidulous and sparse roughness of the midrib beneath and 

 margins of the leaves: these in sixes, fives, or not rarely fours, linear or oblan- 

 ceolate, or lanceolate-oblong, obtuse, 4 to 7 lines long : peduncles slender, scat- 

 tered, one to several-flowered ; flowers often 3-merous, as commonly 4-merous : 



fruit smooth and glabrous. From Texas to California, northward and east- 

 ward. 



Var. pusillum, Gray, is the smallest form, a span or two high : leaves 

 only in fours, 3 or 4 lines long, narrow, in age often reflexed : peduncles 

 1-flowered. In the mountains of Colorado and California, and northward. 



Var. latifolium, Torr. The larger and broadest-leaved form : leaves 

 6 or 7 lines long, often 2 lines wide : cymules few to several-flowered. 

 Canada to Texas and California. 



ORDER 41. VALERIAWACE^E. (VALERIAN FAMILY.) 



Herbs with opposite leaves and no stipules, the calyx-tube adnate to 

 the ovary, which has one fertile one-ovuled cell and two abortive or 

 empty ones, stamens 1 to 3, distinct, fewer than the lobes of the corolla 

 and inserted on its tube. Corolla tubular or funnelform, mostly 5- 

 lobed : flowers in terminal cymes. 



1. VALERIANA, Tourn. 



Calyx-lirnb of 5 to 15 setiform lobes, which are inrolled and inconspicu- 

 ous until fruiting. Stamens 3. Roots of peculiar scent. Leaves various. 

 Flowers white or rose-colored. 



# Erect from a large fusiform perpendicular stock branching below into deep and 



thickened roots : leaves thickish, nervosely veined, not serrate. 

 1. V. edulis, Nutt. Glabrous or glabrate, a foot or at length 3 feet or 

 more high : radical leaves oblanceolate to spatulate, tapering into a margined 

 petiole, entire or some sparingly laciniate-pinnatifid ; cauline rarely none, 

 commonly 1 to 3 pairs, sessile, and pinnately parted into 3 to 7 linear or lan- 

 ceolate divisions, or terminal one spatulate : flowers polygamo-dioecious, yel- 

 lowish white, sessile in the cymules, which form an elongated thyrsiform 

 naked panicle. Mountains of New Mexico and Arizona, northward and 

 eastward. 



