334 PHANEROGAMOUS PLANTS. 



tapering, black externally, with a tough, whitish interior. When 

 baked it is converted into a tolerable food, but is disagreeable to most 

 white people, and has the characteristic strong odor of the genus. 



2. Valeriana capitata, Willd., var. Hookeri, Torr. & Gray. 



Hab. Washington Territory, west of the Cascade Mountains; in 

 wet places on hillsides ; common. 



3. Valeriana sylvatica, var. uliginosa, Torr. & Gray. 



Hab. On the Upper Columbia, Washington Territory. — The leaves 

 are quite glabrous (as they are in some other of our specimens of this 

 variety), and the radical ones as well as the cauline are pinnatifid. 



2. PLECTRITIS, Until. 



1. Plectritis congesta, DO. 



Hab. Puget Sound, and interior of Washington Territory; in woods 

 and prairies. — A variable plant, both in size and form of the leaves : 

 sometimes it is short and stout, with broadly obovate leaves, and a 

 single roundish head of flowers ; but more frequently it is slender, 

 elongated, with the inflorescence rather loose, in somewhat verticillate 

 distant cymules. 



