VALERIAN ACEAE. 397 



3. L. interrupta Bentli. Chaparral Honeysuckle. Stems Avith a rigid 

 woody trunk 1 ft. or so high, the branches climbing or reclining on bushes; 

 leaves orbicular to elliptic-oblong or -ovate, green above, glaucous beneath, 

 % to 1 in. long, on petioles ^ in. long, mostly without interfoliar appendages; 

 flowers yellow, in whorls in an interrupted spike ; spikes 2 to 5 in. long, 

 peduncled, terminal and solitary or with several additional from the axils of 

 the uppermost leaves, 1 to 3 pairs of which are connate-perfoliate; corolla 4 or 

 5 lines long, glabrous exteriorly, and nearly so within; filaments hairy towards 

 the base. 



Dry slopes and ridges, climbing 2 to 4 ft. high on bushes of the 

 chaparral: middle and inner Coast Eanges; Sierra Nevada. June- July. Var. 

 subspicata (Gray) Jepson. Moronel. Uppermost leaves distinct and often 

 very narrow; inflorescence paniculate. — Corral Hollow southward to San Diego. 



VALERIANACEAE. Valerian Family. 



Ours annual herbs with opposite leaves. Flowers mostly perfect, borne 

 in a cymose inflorescence. Corolla epigynous, bilabiate to regularly 5-lobed, 

 the 1 to 3 stamens borne on its tube. Calyx-tube adnate to the ovary, its limb 

 obsolete (in ours) or pappus-like. Ovary commonly 3-celled, the two lateral 

 cells reduced to mere nerves, or enlarged and forming wings to the central cell 

 which is 1-seeded and indehiscent. Style simple, slender; stigmas 1 to 3. 



1. PLECTRITIS DC. 

 Annual herbs. Stems simple or rarely with very slender branches. Leaves 

 entire or sparingly toothed, the cauline commonly sessile. Flowers small 

 (1% to 2 1 / 2 lines long), borne in glomerules at the end of the stem or branches, 

 or the glomerules in interrupted or dense spikes. Wings of the fruit com- 

 monly incurved and forming a circular hollow or cavity on the side. Species 

 similar in size, habit, leaves and inflorescence. (From Latin plecto, to plait 

 or interweave, on account of the involved inflorescence.) 



Fruits wingless 1. P. samolifolia. 



Fruit conspicuously winged. 



Fruit woolly 2. P. jcpsonii. 



Fruit not woolly. 



Fruit wholly glabrous 3. P. glabra. 



Fruit more or less hispid. 



Cavity of fruit without subulate appendages. 



Wings of fruit meeting above, open below; fruit glabrous externally. .4. P. magna. 



Wings of fruit spreading or incurved; fruit more or less hispid externally 



5. P. macrocera. 

 Cavity of fruit with two stout subulate appendages 6. P. davyana. 



1. P. samolifolia (DC.) Hoeck. Corolla obscurely bilabiate; spur short; 

 fruit wingless, resembling a buckwheat fruit. 



Near the coast northward. 



2. P. jepsonii (Suksdorf) Davy. Simple, about 10 in. high; leaves spatu- 

 late-obovate and narrowed to a winged petiole; upper leaves ovate-lanceolate, 

 sessile, acute; fruit conspicuously covered with woolly hairs; incurved margin 

 of wing thickish, marked lengthwise on the outside by a groove. 



Yaca Mts., Jepson. 



3. P. glabra .Jepson. About 1 ft. high, the leaf axils bearing some slender 

 branches; leaves ovate, acute or the lower broadly oblong, all more or less 

 erose or with some few serrulations; spur of corolla broad, almost as broad 

 as the throat; fruit wholly glabrous; margins of the fruit thickish, spreading 

 or equally incurved. 



