Asperula. | XL, STELLATH, 217 
IV. SHERARDIA. SHERARDIA. 
A single species, with the corolla and fruit of an Asperula, and the habit 
of some southern species of that genus, but distinguished both from 
Asperula and Galium by the calyx, which has a distinct border of 4 or 6 
teeth crowning the fruit. 
1. S. arvensis, Linn. (fig. 481). Blue Sherardia, Field Madder.— 
A smell annual, seldom above 6 inches high. Leaves about 6 in a whorl, 
the lower ones small and obovate, the upper linear or lanceolate, all rough 
on the edges and ending in a fine point. Flowers small, blue or pink, in 
little terminal heads, surrounded by a broad, leafy involucre, deeply 
divided into about 8 ‘lobes, longer than the flowers themselves. Corolla 
with a slender tube, little more than a line long, and 4 small, spreading 
lobes. Calyx-teeth enlarged after flowering, forming a little leafy crown at 
_ the top of the fruit. 
In cultivated and waste places, in temperate Europe and Western Asia, 
extending far to the north as a weed of cultivation. Common in the greater 
part of Britain, but becoming scarce in the north of Scotland. #1, the whole 
summer. 
XLI. VALERIANEZ. THE VALERIAN FAMILY. 
-Herbs, either annual or with a perennial, sometimes almost 
bushy stock, opposite leaves, and no stipules. Flowers in ter- 
minal corymbs or panicles, usually small and numerous. Calyx 
adherent to the ovary, the small border sometimes toothed, 
sometimes scarcely perceptible at the time of flowering, but 
unrolling afterwards into a feathery pappus. Corolla in the 
British genera monopetalous, tubular at the base, with 5 spread- 
ing lobes. Stamens always fewer than the lobes of the corolla. 
Fruit small, dry, and seed-like, with a single seed suspended 
from the top of the cell, with the addition frequently of 1 or 2 
imperfect or abortive empty cells. 
A natural family, not large, but widely diffused over a great part of the 
globe. Well characterized among inferior-fruited Monopetals by the seed- 
like fruit and reduced number of stamens. 
Stamenl. Tube of the corolla spurred atthe base. . 1. CENTRANTHUS. 
Stamens 3. Tube of the corolla slightly swollen at the base, but 
not spurred. 
Perennials. Fruit crowned by a feathery pappus . 2. VALERIANA. 
Annuals, Fruit dagice by a as cup- EHO or toothed 
border . j r : - . - oo VALERIANELLA. 
1. CENTRANTHUS. CENTRANTH. 
Habit, calyx, and fruit of Valeriana. Corolla with a more slender tube 
projected at the base into a little spur, and only 1 stamen. 
A small genus of the Mediterranean and Caucasian regions, 
1, C.ruber D.C, (fig. 482). Red Centranth, Red Valerian.—Per en- 
