406 
45, VALERIAN ACEiE. 
*. 
corymb ; br. erect or adpressed linear or lanceolate often di- 
lated at the base very entire not ciliate a little longer than the 
fr. ; fr. minute very shortly and adpressedly hispid ylobosely ovate 
scarcely or not compressed, the back convex with a keel or 
midrib sometimes obsolete and 2 sharp side-ribs, the front with 
2 siplion-like strong blunt ribs inclosing a short or roundish 
oval slightly convex nncleus-like depression like an umbilicus 
and with a keel or midrib which is often faint or obsolete ; 
crown very short and inconspicuous mostly entire obliquely trun- 
cate not ciliate, the dorsal tooth short and broadly ovate mostly 
obtuse and apiculate or mucronate, sometimes acute, the in- 
closed cuplike hollow area roundish oval, — DC.iv. 027 ; Koch (sub 
V. dentata ft) 373; Gren. et Godr. FI. Fr. ii. 62. — Herb. ami. 
Mad. reg. 1-2, r. “ Rib. de Joao Gomes, Funchal, and S. 
Vicente on the road to the Forno de cal/’ S r Moniz ; between 
Seixal and the Bib. de Joao Delgada along the cliff road to the 
east, and very abundantly towards Bib. Fundo to the west, 
in cornfields intermixed with V. olitoria Poll. ; I )t0 da Cruz, 
Terra de Joao Bautista, sparingly ; in a sugar-cane plantation 
close behind the Church of Agua da Pena between S* a Cruz 
and Machico, abundant. Apr. -July. — Light gr. nearly or quite 
smooth. St. 6-9 in. high leafy mostly bushy and branched 
from the base, the branches opposite and rising as high as the 
main st., in weaker pi. simple and branched only upwards; st. 
and branches thicker stouter and stiffer than in Morisoni , 
smooth or with only a few minute short furfuraceous hairs or 
setules here and there in their grooves or hollows. Branches 
of corymb repeatedly dichotomous stiffly divaricate, the ultimate 
and penultimate divisions of the cymes abbreviate robust and 
thickened with the edges or angles alato-marginate ; all quite 
smooth and even. Br. small not much longer than the fr. erect 
or erecto-patent narrow and acute mostly dilated and cafycu- 
late-amplexicaul at the base, with membranous w. margins, 
quite smooth and entire. FI. minute in small distinct close 
terminal forked cymes or heads opening in rows regularly 
outwards, pink in bud, afterwards appearing in the mass 
pale lilac or bluish ; a solitary fl. in the axils of the upper- 
most forks only of the corymb. Fr. 1-1 A milliin. long, £ mill, 
broad, coppery or reddish brown, much smaller shorter and 
plumper than in V. Morisoni IX'., not acuminate or beaked 
and with a short oval not oblong depression in front more like 
an umbilicus, minutely rough or adpressedly hispid with very 
short erect setules, rarely nearly smooth or naked and merely 
reticulato-gTnnulate, and then only a few such on the same pi. 
with others hispid. ( Town gr. erect scarcely more than 
the length of the fr., much broader and shorter than in V. Mo- 
risoni DC., only a little narrower than the widest part of the 
fr. and scarcely longer than broad, the single dorsal lobe or 
