§ 3. _Perennial; fruit a berry; leaves in 4's, 1-nerved._ 13. G. hispídulum, Michx. Hirsute-pubescent, scabrous, or sometimes nearly smooth, 1--2° high, diffusely branched; leaves oblong or oval, mucronate (3--6´´ long), pedicels solitary or commonly 2 or 3 from the small involucral whorl, all naked, or one of them bracteolate; flowers white; berry purple, glabrate.--Dry or sandy soil, southern N. J. to Fla., along the coast. 8. SHERÁRDIA, Dill. Calyx-lobes lanceolate, persistent. Corolla funnel-form, the limb 4--5-lobed. Stamens 4--5. Style filiform, 2-cleft, stigmas capitate. Fruit dry, twin, of 2 indehiscent 1-seeded carpels.--A slender procumbent herb, with square stems, lanceolate pungent leaves in whorls of 4--6, and small subsessile blue or pinkish flowers surrounded by a gamophyllous involucre. (Named for _Dr. William Sherard_, patron of Dillenius.) S. ARVÉNSIS, L. The only species; sparingly naturalized from Eu. ORDER 53. VALERIANÀCEÆ. (VALERIAN FAMILY.) _Herbs, with opposite leaves and no stipules; the calyx-tube coherent with the ovary, which has one fertile 1-ovuled cell and two abortive or empty ones; the stamens distinct, 1--3, fewer than the lobes of the corolla, and inserted on its tube._--Corolla tubular or funnel-form, often irregular, mostly 5-lobed, the lobes imbricated in the bud. Style slender; stigmas 1--3. Fruit indehiscent, 1-celled (the two empty cells of the ovary disappearing), or 3-celled, two of them empty, the other 1-seeded. Seed suspended, anatropous, with a large embryo and no albumen.--Flowers in panicled or clustered cymes. (Roots often odorous and antispasmodic.) 1. VALERIÀNA, Tourn. VALERIAN. Limb of the calyx of several plumose bristles (like a pappus) which are rolled up inward in flower, but unroll and spread as the seed-like 1-celled fruit matures. Corolla commonly gibbous near the base, the 5-lobed limb nearly regular. Stamens 3.--Perennial herbs, with thickened strong-scented roots, and simple or pinnate leaves. Flowers in many species imperfectly diœcious or dimorphous. (A mediæval Latin name of uncertain origin.) [*] _Root spindle-shaped, large and deep (6--12´ long); leaves thickish._ 1. V. édulis, Nutt. Smooth, or minutely downy when very young; stem straight (1--4° high), few-leaved; leaves commonly minutely and densely ciliate, those of the root spatulate and lanceolate, of the stem pinnately parted into 3--7 long and narrow divisions; flowers in a long and narrow interrupted panicle, nearly diœcious; corolla whitish, obconical (2´´ long).--Wet plains and prairies, Ohio and Ont. to Iowa, Minn., and westward. June. [*][*] _Root fibrous; leaves thin. (Stems 1--3° high.)_