Lamb's Lettuce (Valerianella Eriocarpa, Desv.)

The habitat of this plant is fields, banks, etc. The habit is erect, branched, with slender spreading stems. The flowers are small, pale-lilac, in crowded cymes. The fruit is softly downy or smooth, egg-shaped, and is crowned with the large, toothed, nearly regular, truncate, net-veined calyx. The empty cells are distant and slender, and the fertile cell is not corky. The plant is 6 in. to 1 ft. high, flowering in June and July, and is a herbaceous annual.

Lamb's Lettuce (Valerianella Carinata, Lois.)

This species may be found as a weed in cornfields, on garden walls, where many similar weeds occur, and on hedgebanks. The plant is much-branched, and like the Common Lamb's Lettuce ( V. olitoria), except in the following respects. The radical leaves are spoon-shaped, those on the stem oblong. The flowers are pale-blue, in a dense cyme, forming a head. The bracts have a fringe of hairs. The fruit is flattened from front to back, boat-shaped, oblong, there being two large barren cells, and the fertile cell is not corky (as in V. olitoria), the cells being nearly equal. It is crowned with a nearly straight tooth. The barren and fertile cells are touching, with a deep furrow between. The plant is 2-8 in. in height. It flowers from April to June, and is a herbaceous annual.

Corn Salad ( Valerianella Ritnosa, Bast. = Auricula, D.C.)

The habitat of this species is cornfields and cultivated ground. The habit is as in the next, but it is more slender. The lower leaves are inversely egg-shaped, narrow below, the upper oblong. The bracts are fringed with hairs. The flowers are distant, in a loose cyme, repeatedly forking, pinkish-blue. The fruit is nearly round, swollen, with an erect, membranous, blunt tooth, the calyx forming a crown, the barren cells larger than the fertile, and swollen, with a narrow furrow in front, touching, the fertile cell not corky. The plant is 2-12 in. high. Flowers are to be found in July and August. The plant is herbaceous and annual.

Corn Salad ( Valerianella Dentata, Poll.)

This species is found in cornfields, cultivated ground, and on banks. The habit is similar to that of V. olitoria, branched, but slender. The flowers are flesh-coloured, borne in a loose, spreading cyme or corymb. The fruit is narrowly egg-shaped, flat, crowned with the small calyx, which is unequal, 4-toothed, and flat in front with a space, smooth, the fertile cells not corky, the empty cells smaller, and in a separate portion of the fruit wall produced at each end. The plant is from 2 in. to a foot high. It flowers in June and July, and is a herbaceous annual.