288 VALERIANACE.E. 



PLECTRITIS. 



long, the tube twice the length of the limb, hairy at base within : sta- 

 mens glabrous : stigma minutely 3-lobed : bracts linear-subulate, as long 

 as the glabrous fruit. Wenatchee Washington. 



2 PLECTRITIS Lindl. Bot. Reg. t. 1095. 



Low smooth annuals with opposite mostly entire leaves and 

 small flowers in terminal heads or spikes. Calyx-limb truncate, 

 entire or obsolete ; tube of the corolla gibbous anteriorly, spurred 

 at base ; the limb 5-cleft, more or less bilabiate. Stamens 3. 

 Stigma capitate. Fruit with a coriaceous, somewhat triangular, 

 fertile cell, the two empty ones often open their full length, each 

 forming an involute wing ; in one species almost wingless. 



* Fruit somewhat meniscoidal, only obtusely angled dorsatly : cotyl- 

 edons incumbent, that is parallel to the ventral face and expanded 

 wings. 



P. macrocera T. & G Fl. ii, 50. >tems slender, 2-10 inches high, 

 simple or sparingly branched: flowers small, usually in 2-4 somewhat dis- 

 tant and spicately disposed verticillastrate clusters: corolla narrow, white 

 or pinkish, 1-2 lines long with a spur usually as long as the tube : limb 

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

 posterior lobe emarginate-bifid : fruit 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 dry hillsides, 

 British Columbia to California, Nevada and Arizona. 



* * Fruit strongly carinate-angled dorsally: cotyledons transverse to 

 the ventral face, accumbent 



-<- Wings conspicuous, more or less introrse, in the last species 

 small. 



P. cong'esta DC Prodr iv. 631. Stems often rather stout, 4-20 

 inches high, simple or sparingly branched : flowers 1-4 lines long in a 

 capituliform or oblong simple or interrupted thyrsus, or sparingly verticil- 

 lastrate below: corolla rose or flesh color with obviously bilabiate limb 

 and spur half or less the length of the very gibbous throat: fruit broadly 

 winged and with prominent but rather obtuse keel, glabrous or puberu- 

 lent to short villous. On moist, usually shady slopes, British Columbia to 

 California. 



P. anomala Suksdorf Valerianella anomala Gray Stems stoutish, 8- 

 20 inches high, freely branching: flowers small, in several approximate 

 verticillastrate clusters; corolla white, a line long, wholly destitute of 

 spur, at most a small mammaeform gibbosity near the base of the short 

 and broadly funnelform throat; limb small, obscurely bilabiate, usually 

 4-lobed and posterior lobe emarginate or 2-cleft: fruit \%. lines long, 

 acutely angled, with sharp edge on the back, with broad wings usually in- 

 flexed at base and expanding above. In moist meadows and woodlands 

 along the lower Columbia River 



P. aphanoptera Suksdorf Valerianella aphanoptera Gray. Stems 

 slender and weak, 1-2 feet high, branching: flowers small, in 2-4 verticel- 

 lastrate clusters: corolla only a line long, white, with obviously bilabiate 

 limb and short basal spur; fruit puberulent or glabrate, trigonous; dorsal 

 angle salient but rather obtuse, lateral angles with distinct but narrow in- 

 curved wings. Along streams, Southern Oregon. 



-«- •*- Wings wholly wanting to the triquetrous fruit, the lateral 

 angle of which resembles the dorsal. 



