378 VALERIANACE^. 



Valerian was anciently called in English Sehvcdl, a name properly 



applied to Zedoavy; and the root was so much valued for its medicinal 



virtues, that as Gerarde ^ (15G7) remarks, the poorer classes in the north 



of England esteemed " no broths, pottage, or physicall meats " to be 



worth anything without it. Its odour, now considered intolerable, ^vas 



not so regarded in the 16th century, when it was absolutely the custom 



to lay the root among clothes as a perfume ^ in the same way as those 



of Valeriana celtica L. and the Himalayan valerians are still used 

 in the East. 



Some of the names applied to valerian in Northern and Central 

 Europe are remarkable. Thus in Scandinavia we find Velandsrot, 

 Velatnsrot, Vandelrot (Swedish); Vendelrod, Venderod, Vendlngsrod 

 (Norwegian) ■, and VelandsuH (Danish)— names all signifying Vandels 

 root? Valerian is also called in Danish DanmarJcs grces. Among the 

 German-speaking population of Switzerland, a similar word to the last, 

 namely Tannmark, is applied to valerian. The Denemarcha mentioned 

 by St. Hildegard,* about A.D. 1160, is the same. These names seem to 



connexion 



unable to explain. 



art 



to draw attention to the acid reaction of the distilled water of valerian. 

 Another German assistant, Grote, at Verden, showed in 1831 that the 

 acidity vvas by no means due to acetic acid, but to a peculiar kind of 

 acid The latter was identified in 1843 by Dumas with the acid arti- 

 hcially obtained from amy lie alcohol and that extracted in ^-^-^ ^- 

 Chevreul from the fat of dolphins. 



1817 



Description— The valerian root of the shops consists of an upright 

 rhizome of the thickness of the little finger, emitting a few short hori- 

 zontal branches, besides numerous slender rootlets.^ The rhizome is 

 naturally very short, and is rendered still more so by the practice of 

 cutting It m order to fticilitate drying. The rootlets, which are gene- 

 ^ 7a- • V -^^ ^°°S> attain ^\ of an inch in diameter, tapering 

 and dividing mto slender fibres towards their extremities. They are 

 shrivelled very brittle, and, as well as the rhizome, of a dull, earthy 

 oiown. When broken transversely, they display a dark epidermis, 

 lorming part of a thick white bark which surrounds a slender woody 



.T'^''\a i^ '""^^"^^ °^ ^^6 rhizome is compact, firm and homy, l^ut 

 w hen old becomes hollow, a portion of the tissue remaining however in 

 the term of transversa sr^nf a 



,.rln,; ?^ ^^"^ ^ peculiar, somewhat terebinth in ous and camphor-like 

 nt Ji. """ 1 ? ^ittensh, aromatic taste. The root when just taken from 

 tiie ground has no distinctive sm^ll i.„f o«^.,,-... ;f. ^T^ovo^fprlstic odour 



ground 

 as it dries. 



the ^i,jr°f 0Pic,Structure«-In the rhizome as well as in the rootlets 

 ^ne cortical part is separated from the central column by a dark cambial 



^ TuS '5m-" Jz?^^- , , „. erian root are well explained in Jrt^> 



'H. Jenssen- Tu^oV. S:^ S ^^^; ^'^">' Vakriana-Arten, Halle. Ib^^. 



^e/iatvi., Kjobenhav,? 18tt7 n-Q*^^'" ^^"«- pages, 4^ 4 plates. ^. , .^^t 



' Physka, Argent^'i Jq? p^ ''^- ' The structure of the rhizomes and roo 



' The mo'rpholSa 1;,,! • "r . ^^ ^^^ ^^^^'^^^ «P^"^« °f ^■^^""^^^S 



f "logical pecuhanties of val. Ai „„„j i,.. t„_„„„- r-Viafin in his -&""'' 



les of val- discussed by Joannes Chatin m 



