214 VALERIANACEJS. (VALERIAN FAMILY.) 



oblong-ovate or lanceolate nearly entire leaflets ; cyme at first close, many- 

 flowered ; corolla inversely conical (3" long, rose-color or white). Cedar swamps, 

 Western Vermont to Wisconsin and northward. June. (Probably a form of 

 V. dioica, L.) 



* Root spindle-shaped, large and deep (6' -12' long) : leaves thickish. 

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

 straight (l-4 high), few-leaved; leaves commonly minutely and densely 

 ciliate, those of the root spatulate and lanceolate, of the stem pinnately parted 

 into 3-7 long and narrow divisions ; flowers in a long and narrow interrupted 

 panicle, nearly dioecious; corolla whitish, obconical (2" long). (V. ciliata, 

 Torr. $ Gr.) Alluvial ground, Ohio to Wisconsin, and westward. June. 



2 . F E D I A , Gsertn. CORN SALAD. LAMB-LETTUCE. 



Limb of the calyx obsolete or merely toothed. Corolla funnel-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. Annuals and 

 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. (Name of uncertain derivation.) Our species all 

 have the limb of the calyx obsolete, and are so much alike in aspect, flowers, 

 &c., that good characters are only to be taken from the fruit. They all have 

 a rather short corolla, the limb of which is nearly regular, and therefore be- 

 long to the section (by many botanists taken as a genus) VALERIANELLA. 



1. F. OLIT6RIA, Vahl. Fruit compressed, oblique, at length broader than 

 long, with a corky or spongy mass at the back of the fertile cell nearly as large as the 

 (often confluent) empty cells ; flowers bluish. Fields, New York and Penn. 

 to Virginia : rare. (Adv. from Eu.) 



2. P. Fagopyrum, Torr. & Gr. Fruit ovate-triangular, smooth, not grooved 

 between the (at length confluent) empty cells, which form the anterior angle, and are 

 much smaller than the broad and flat fertile one ; flowers white. Low grounds, 

 from Western New York to Wisconsin and Kentucky. May, June. Plant 

 l-2 high. 



3. F. radiata, Michx. Fruit ovoid, downy (rarely smooth), obtusely and 

 unequally somewhat ^-angled ; the empty cells parallel and contiguous, but with a 

 deep groove between them, rather narrower than the flattish fertile cell. Low 

 grounds, Penn. to Michigan, and southward. Plant 6' -15' high. 



4. F. umbilicata, Sulliv. Fruit globular-ovate, smooth; the much inflated 

 sterile cells wider and many times thicker than the flattish fertile one, contiguous, and 

 when young with a common partition, when grown, indented with a deep circular 

 depression in the middle, opening into the confluent sterile cells ; bracts not cili- 

 ate. Moist grounds, Columbus, Ohio, Sullivant. (Sill. Jour. Jan. 1842.) 



5. F. patellaria, Sulliv. Fruit smooth, circular, platter-shaped or disk-like, 

 slightly notched at both ends, the flattened-concave sterile cells widely divergent, 

 much broader than the fertile one, and forming a kind of wing around it when 

 ripe. Low grounds, Columbus, Ohio, Sullivant. Plant l-2 high, resem- 

 bling the last, but with a very different fruit. 



