t y [ S n ]
V a l e r i a n a L o c u f t a ,
Corn S a lla d , or L a m b 's Lettuce.
TR IAN D RIA Monogynia.
G en. Char. Cal. n on e . Cor. o f i p etal, fu p erio r,
g ib b o u s on o n e fid e at the bafe. Seed one .
S pec. Char. S tam in a th re e . S tem fo rk ed . L e a v e s
lin e a r - to n g u e - fh ap e d , b lu n t.
Sy n . V a le rian a L o c u fta . Linn. Sp. P I. 4 7 , a. Sm.
FI. B r it. 39. Hudf. i 3, With. 6 6 . Hull. 11*
'Relb. 14 . Sibth, 2 1 . Abbot. 8. Curt. Lond.
fa fc . 5. f: 4. Mart, F l. Ru ß. t. 34.
V a le r ian e lla arvenfis prgecox h um ilis, fem in e com-,
p re fib . Rail Syn. 301.
-
N cornfields and all kinds of cultivated ground the corn-,
fallad is a common well-known weed, flowering from April
to June. A t an earlier period its leaves are eaten as a fallad.
The root is fmall and annual. Herb of a pale grayifh
green, generally a little downy. Stem forked and fpreading,
eorymbofe, each branch topped with a little head of fmall
pale blue or flefh-coloured flowers. Leaves oppofite, various
in form, but more or lefs tongue-fhaped and bluntifh, occa-
flonally entire, ferrated, or laciniated. Corolla unequally five-
eleft in the border. Stamina 3. Stigma blunt, notched.
Seed of a fwelling ovate figure, rather comprefled, ribbed
moft on one fide, fmooth, crowned with 5 minute teeth. The
flowers are encompafled with partly membranous bra&ete.
Such is our common plant, from which the varieties mentioned
by Withering are certainly not fpecifically different.
Thofe enumerated in the Species Plantarum, which differ fo
widely in their fruit, feem to claim the rank of fpecies $ but
none of them having been found in Britain, it is not to our
prefent purpofe to inveftigate this point. Mr. Edward Forfter
has gathered in Cornwall a variety' with much lefs fwelling
feeds than that now before us, which we recommend, to. the
ftudy of Cornilh botanifts.