396 



THE VALEEIAN FAMILY. 



sparingly to the Baltic. Common in many parts of southern England 

 and Ireland, but does not extend into Scotland. Fl. summer. 



IV. SHERARDIA. SHERAEDIA. 



A single species, with the corolla and fruit of an Asperule, and the 

 habit of some southern species of that genus, but distinguished both 

 from Asperule and Galium by the calyx, which has a distinct border 

 of 4 or 6 teeth crowning the fruit. 



1. Blue Sherardia. Sherardia arvensis, Linn. (Fig. 476.) 



(Eng. Bot. t. 891. Field Madder.) 



A small 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 invo- 

 lucre, deeply divided into about 8 lobes, 

 longer than the flowers themselves. Co- 

 rolla 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 be- 

 coming scarce Jn the north of Scotland. Fl. the ivliole summer. 



Fig. 476. 



XXXVIII. VALERIAN FAMILY. VALERIANA. 



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, some- 

 times scarcely perceptible at the time of flowering, but unrolling 

 afterwards into a feathery pappus. Corolla in the British genera 



