350 * VALBKIANEAE. [Centranthus . 



prickles or minute asperities. Leaves 6-8 in a whorl, linear-lanceolate, lin. long, 

 hispid. Cymes 3- or more flowered ; flowers small. Fruits usually purplish, clothed 

 with hooked bristles. 



NOETH and SOUTH Islands : naturalised in many localities. Eriff. Goose-grass. Jan. to 

 March. Europe. 



* G. parisiense, L., Sp. PI 108, subsp. anglicum. Annual. Stems slender, 

 spreading, 5in.-9in. high, glabrous. Leaves 5-7 in a whorl, ^in.-^in. long, scabrous, 

 mucronate. Cymes few-flowered, axillary or terminal, paniculate. Flowers very 

 small. Fruit glabrous, slightly tuberculate. 



NORTH Island : Auckland : sparingly naturalised. Whangarei, T. K. Auckland, Cheese- 

 man t SOUTH Island : Motueka, Kingsley ! 



* SHERARDIA, Dill. 



Calyx 4-6, persistent. Corolla funnel-shaped, 4-5-lobed. Stamens 4-5. Style 

 filiform, bifid ; stigmas capitate. Fruit of 2 dry indehiscent 1-seeded carpels. An 

 annual or biennial herb, with short slender stems and lanceolate acute leaves in 

 whorls of 4-6. Flowers in small sessile or subsessile heads. 



* S. arvensis, L., Sp. PI. 102. Annual. Stems numerous, prostrate, 4-angled, 

 scabrid or clothed with recurved points. Leaves opposite, below, vercicillate above, 

 oblong-lanceolate, sessile, margins recurved, acute. Flowers in terminal involucrate 

 heads, small. Fruit hispid. Calyx-teeth persistent, eiliate. 



NORTH and SOUTH Islands : naturalised in most districts. Field-madder. Dec. to Feb. 

 Europe, &c. 



Oedee-* valbrianeae. 



Calyx-tube adherent with the ovary ; limb lobed or pappose ; lobes involute in 

 bud. Corolla tubular or funnel-shaped, regular or gibbous or spurred at the base, 

 unequally 3-6-lobed, imbricate in bud. Disk epigynous, inserted on the corolla-tube 

 and fewer than its lobes. Anthers versatile. Style slender ; stigmas 1-3. Ovary 

 S-celled, 2 cells empty, 1 with a solitary pendulous anatropous ovule. Fruit inde- 

 hiscent, small, membranous or coriaceous, rarely woody, with 1 fertile cell : 2 may be 

 sterile or confluent, absorbed or suppressed. Embryo large ; endosperm 0. Herbs, 

 rarely shrubs, with opposite exstipulate leaves and usually irregular flowers in dicho- 

 tomous cymes. 



* Oentkanthus. Calyx-limb pappose. Corolla-tube spurred. Stamen 1. 



* VALBBiiNBLLi. Galyx-limb toothed or lobed, Corolla-tube oboonio. Stamens 3. 



* CENTRANTHUS, DC. 



Calyx-limb annular, minutely crenulate. Corolla-tube elongated, narrow, with 

 a longitudinal septum spurred at the base ; limb 5-lobed. Stamen 1. Stigma capi- 

 tate. Fruit membranous, indehiscent, 1-celled, 1-seeded, crowned with the calyx- 

 limb expanded into a feathery pappus. Perennial calyx-limb glabrous. Herbs, with 

 terminal unilateral paniculate cymes and bracteolate flowers. 



* C. ruber, DC, Fl. Fr. iv. 239. An erect herb, 2ft.-3ft. high, sometimes 

 suffruticose. Young branches fistular. Leaves below 2in.-3in. long, petioled, lanceo- 

 late ; upper leaves larger, ovate-lanceolate, sessile, entire or toothed at the base. 

 Cymes elongated. Flowers crowded, red or white. Spur very short, acute. 



NORTH and SOUTH Islands : on rocky banks ; naturalised in many localities. Bed 

 valerian. Dec. to March. South Europe. 



