flowers white.—F. radiata, Torr. ! fl. 1. p. 35, chiefly, not of Michx. Val-
erianella radiata, Beck, hot. p. 164, partly.
Swampy shady grounds, Western part of the State of New York! to
Michigan! and apparently in Ohio and Kentucky. May.—Stem 6-18
inches high, dichotomous above,. nearly glabrous. Leaves an inch or an
inch and a half long, slightly glaucous; the lowermost spatulate; the uppermost
lanceolate-oblong, frequently but not uniformly acutish. Bracts lanceolate,
acute, with slightly scarious scarcely ciliate margins. Corolla larger
than in F. radiata, infundibuliform. Stigma thickened, nearly entire. Fruit
much larger than in F . radiata, l i to 2 lines long, minutely puberulent when
young, but glabrous when mature, in shape resembling a grain of buckwheat,
acutish, minutely and obtusely 1-3-toothed ; the fertile cell more than
twice the breadth of the two sterile ones taken together, broad and flat on the
back, the transverse section triangular with the anterior angle truncated and
excavated for the reception of the sterile cells, filled by the broad seed: the
empty cells taken together roundish, membranaceous, with the anterior
groove very minute or none ; the dissepiment thin, and apparently often disappearing.—
A remarkable species in its fruit, which furnishes the chief characters
in this genus. We have specimens from Ohio and Kentucky, unfortunately
without fruit, which have just the flowers of this plant, but rather
larger leaves, all obtuse, inclined to be ciliate, and the upper often toothed at
the base : they will doubtless prove to belong to this species.
* * * Fruit wot thickened or corky at the back of the fertile cell; the transverse section
somewhat orbicular or crescent-shaped: empty cells as large as or larger than the fertile
one, either contiguous or separated.—Platycoelse & Selenocotise, DC.
5. F. radiata (Michx.) : fruit ovoid, pubescent, obtusely and unequally
somewhat 4-angled, slightly 1-toothed at the summit; the empty cells contiguous,
but with a rather deep groove between them, rather narrower than
the flatfish fertile.cell; upper leaves often toothed ; flowers white.—Michx. !
fl. 1. p. 18 ; Vahl. enum. 2. p. 21; Ell. sk. 1. p.- 42. Valeriana locusta e.
radiata, Linn. spec. 1- p. 34 ? V. locusta, Walt. Car. p. 66. V. radiata,
Willd. 1. c. ? Valerianella radiata, Dufresne, l. c. 1 (ex syn.), not of DC.
[J. 1 leiocarpa: fruit ovoid-oblong, glabrous, the fertile cell rather narrower
in proportion.
Low grounds and moist fields, Michigan, Dr. Pitcher ! to Florida! and
Western Lousiana! /3. North Carolina!—April-(March in the Southern
States) May.—Stem 3-12 inches high, often, slightly pubescent. Leaves
mostly somewhat ciliate; the lower oblong-spatulate; the upper lanceolate-
oblong, obtuse, often coarsely toothed towards the base. Bracts lanceolate,
slightly ciliate. Flowers in dense cymules, much smaller than in the preceding,
white, or'bluish-white ? Stigma with three short lobes. Fruit
scarcely a line long, clothed with a short somewhat deciduous pubescence,
slightly grooved on each side between the sterile and the fertile cell, and
with a pretty deep open groove between the two former, which however are
not at all divergent.—This species is without doubt indigenous; and indeed
is quite different from any described foreign species, but it has sometimes
been confounded with the introduced F. olitoria. We are uncertain to which
the synonym of Clayton should be referred: the character ‘ floribus albis’
applies best to F. radiata; that o f ‘ semine compresso’ to F. olitoria.—Our
var. ? leiocarpa has a narrower as well as smooth fruit, but we dare not consider
it a distinct species.
6. F. Woodsiana: fruit subglobose-inflated, glabrous, very slightly 1-
toothed at the summit; the empty cells separate from top to bottom, diverging,
much inflated, their transverse section nearly orbicular, much larger
than the fertile cell, which is narrowly oblong and flattened on the back;
upper leaves usually incisely toothed; bracts oval-lanceolate, acute, not
ciliate. _
Texas, “ between Bejar and Austin, Berlandier,” DC. (under Valerian-
ella pumila), Drummond!—Habit of F . radiata. Leaves very slightly if at
all ciliate. Flowers in small glomerate cymules. Bracts without scarious
margins. Corolla very small and short. Stigma with 3 short lobes. Cells
of the fruit each very obscurely 1-nerved, and obtuse at the apex ; the point
of the fertile one slightly produced, but not appearing like a tooth of the
calyx.—This apparently very distinct species (allied doubtless to F. pumila,
and perhaps also to F. turgida,) we would dedicate to Joseph Woods, Esq.
F. L. S., a well-known British botanist, whose admirable memoir entitled
“ Observations on the species of Fedia ” (published in the seventeenth volume
of the Transactions of the Linnaean Society), has thrown much light upon
the European species.
\ Doubtful Species.
7. F. chenopodifolia (Pursh): dichotomous ; leaves ovate, acute, toothed
towards the base; cymes naked, divaricate-dichotomous; filaments long.
Pursh, fl. 2. p. 727.
Virginia, Herb. Sherard. ® About a span high ; flowers the size of
Valeriana officinalis. Pursh.
Order LXXV. DIPSACEiE. Vaill.; DC.
Tube of the calyx adherent to the ovary, or sometimes free except
at the summit; the limb .various, sometimes forming a hairy or plumose
pappus. Corolla tubular; the limb 5-cleft, or 4-cleft by the
union of the two superior lobes; the inferior lobe larger and overlapping
the others in aestivation. Stamens 4, inserted into the corolla
towards its base (the posterior one suppressed), distinct, or rarely with
the filaments united in pairs: anthers introrse: pollen tetrahaedal.
Ovary 1-celled, with a single suspended ovule : style filiform : stigma
simple or 2-lobed. Fruit membranaceous or acheniform, indehiscent,
crowned with the limb of the calyx, 1-celled, 1-seeded. Seed anatro-
pous, with a very thin testa which often coheres with the pericarp.
Embryo nearly the length of the fleshy albumen.—Herbs or suffrutes-
cent plants (none of them natives of America) ; with opposite or
verticillate sessile leaves, without stipules. Flowers aggregated in a
dense involucrate head upon a common receptacle (rarely in dense
whorls), each usually subtended by a chaff-like bract, and surrounded
at the base by a very short closely appressed monophyllous involucel;
the corolla of the exterior flowers often radiant.
1. DIPSACUS. Tourn.; L in n .; Gcertn. fr . t. 86 ; Coult. Dips. p. 21,
ƒ. 2-4, 8f in DC. prodr. 4. p. 695.
Flowers capitate ; the involucre polyphyllous, longer than the somewhat
foliaceous and acuminate chaff of the receptacle. Involucel 4-sided, closely