128 VALERIANACE^. (VALERIAN FAMILY.) 



-M- •»-(• Flowers few in number and scattered. 



5. G. bifolium, 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 nearlij reduced to a single pair : 

 flowers on solitar// naked peduncles : fructiferous peduncles about the length of 

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

 tlp^ — Bot. King Exp. 134. Mountains of W. Colorado and S. Montana to 

 California. 



6. G. trifidum, 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 

 onlv 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. VALERIANACEJE. (Valerian Family.) 



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

 die 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 fuunelform, mostly 5- 

 lobed : flowers in terminal cymes. 



1. VALERIANA, Tourn. 



Calyx-limb of 5 to 1.5 setiform lobes, which are inrolled and inconspicu- 

 ous until fruiting. Stamens 3. Roots of pecuhar 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-piunatifid ; cauline rarely none, 

 commonly 1 to 3 pairs, sessile, and piunately 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. 



