VALEEIANE^!. 167 



subulate, either naked or sparsely spinulose-eiliate, 2 — 4 lines long: 

 fl. dioecious, the sterile in few-flowered terminal cymes; fertile solitary, 

 subtended by a whorl of leaves which are longer than the deflexed 

 fruiting pedicel: berry smooth, blackish.— Dry summits of Mt. Diablo, 

 Mt. Hamilton, etc. 



Ordbb lvi. VALERIANE/E. 



Herbs with opposite leaves, no stipules, and mostly complete flowers, 

 in a cymose or thyreoid inflorescence. Calyx-tube adherent to the 

 ovary; limb either obsolete, or composed of teeth which develop as a 

 pappus or feathery crown upon the fruit. Corolla more or less irregular; 

 the limb bilabiate, the lobes imbricate in bud. Stamens 1 — 3, epipetalous. 

 Filaments and style filiform; stigma undivided and truncate, or minutely 

 3-cleft. Fruit an achene; seed pendulous. 



1. YALERIANELLA, Vaillant. Rather small spring annuals, with 

 small pinkish flowers in cymes which form a more or less interrupted 

 thyrsiform terminal inflorescence. Corolla more or less bilabiate, 

 spurred or gibbous at base. Calyx-limb none, therefore no pappus to 

 the variously winged often meniscoid glabrous or pubescent fruit. 



1: V. niacrocera (T. & G.), Gray. Corolla only a line long, with 

 spur sometimes as long as the body, sometimes shorter; limb somewhat 

 equally spreading, hardly bilabiate, or equally 4-lobed and the posterior 

 lobe emarginate-bifid: fr. glabrous or puberulent, obtuse or lightly lineate- 

 sulcate on the dorsal angle, the broad wing, circumscribing the ventral 

 face of the achene, spreading or incurved. — On hillsides. April — June. 



2. V. congesta, Lindl. Corolla 3 — 4 lines long, with obviously 

 bilabiate 5-cleft limb, the lobes oblong, obtuse; tube very gibbous, 

 spurred at base, the spur short, arcuate, obtuse: fr. pubescent, the keel 

 prominent, obtuse, circumscribing ventral-face wing broad, involute. — 

 Common on dry hills, or in shady places. — April, May. 



3. V. samolifolia (DC), Gray. Corolla a line long, obscurely bilabiate, 

 with short obconic-saccate spur: //'. triquetrous, wholly destitute of wing, 

 glabrous or a little pubescent. — Near the coast, from Sonoma Co- 

 northward. 



Ordbb LVII. D I P S A C E /€ . 



Herbs with opposite leaves, and flowers in dense involucrate peduncled 

 heads; each flower in the head enclosed within a tubular involucel and 

 subtended by a bract. Calyx-tube adherent to the ovary; limb entire, 

 or toothed, or with bristle-like segments that persist upon the fruit. 

 Corolla inserted at summit of calyx-tube, 4- or 5-lobed. Stamens 4, 

 epipetalous, alternate with the corolla lobes. Style filiform; stigma 

 simple, longitudinal or subcapitate. Fruit achene-like, crowned with 

 the calyx-limb, 1 seeded. Seed pendulous; albumen fleshy. 



