_Valerian Family_
Perennial strongly smelling herbs, with opposite leaves and paniculate
heads of small pink or white, funnel-form, more or less gibbous
flowers, commonly with 3 exserted stamens.
[Sidenote: =Valeriana septentrionalis= Rydb. _Northern Valerian._]
Erect, perfectly smooth throughout or the inflorescence minutely hairy,
8—16 inches high. Basal, leaves petioled, spatulate or oval, 1—5
inches long, entire; stem leaves usually 3 pairs, the lower petioled,
the upper sessile, segments, 5—7 oval or linear-lanceolate, entire or
merely undulate on the margins. Flowers cymose-paniculate, usually
congested; corolla white, about ¼ of an inch long; fruit smooth, ⅛ of
an inch or slightly longer.
In moist shaded places and on slopes in the lower valleys of the
Rockies; flowering in July.
[Sidenote: =Valeriana Scouleri= Rydb. _Scouler’s Valerian._]
Smooth throughout; stem rather stout, 1—3 feet high. Leaves, the basal
on long petioles, oblong, 1—2 inches long, 3-lobed, the centre one much
the largest, oblong, tapering to both ends, the lateral lanceolate;
stem leaves, 2—4 pairs pinnately parted in 5—7 lanceolate, acute,
entire, or undulate segments, 1—2 inches long. Flowers pink in a flat,
cymose panicle, 2—2½ inches broad; corolla nearly ¼ of an inch long,
funnel-form; stamens and style exserted.
In moist open ground throughout the Rockies at the higher elevations;
flowering during June and early July.
[Sidenote: =Valeriana sitchensis= Bong. _Wild Heliotrope._]
Smooth; stems rather stout, 1—5 feet high, often branching. Leaves in
2—4 pairs, pinnately 3—5-lobed, leaflets ovate to oblong or lanceolate,
acuminate, coarsely dentate, 1—2 inches long, densely white-hairy
at the base of the petioles; basal leaves lacking at the time of
flowering. Flowers very fragrant, pink, in a compact cymose panicle,
corolla broad, funnel-form, ¼ of an inch long with spreading rounded
lobes; stamens and style much exserted.
Common along the streams and in damp places in the Selkirks, at times
forming vast masses of pink when in flower in June and early July.
[Illustration: Valeriana sitchensis Bong. (⅓ Nat.) Wild Heliotrope.]
[Illustration: Lobelia Kalmii strictiflora Rydb. (Nat.) Brook
Lobelia.]