1303 



POLEMONIUM* cseruleum ; var. piliferum. 

 Common Greek Valerian ; hairy variety. 



PENTANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 



Nat. ord. Polemoniace^e. 

 POLEMONIUM. — Suprd, vol. 6. fol. 460. 



P. caeruleuyn ; foliis pinnatis, floribus erectis, calycibus corollse tubo longiori- 



bus. R'dmer et Sc/mltes, 4. 364. 

 P. caeruleum. Linncevs and others. 

 Var. piliferum ; caule suberecto foliis radicalibus vix longiore, calycibus 



villosis. 



This plant was raised in the Garden of the Horticul- 

 tural Society, from seeds collected in the last Arctic Expe- 

 dition, and presented to the Society by Dr. Richardson. 

 Our motive for figuring it is for the sake of recording 

 the differences which exist between it and the common 

 P. caeruleum of Europe, but which appear insufficient to 

 distinguish it as a species. 



In the first place, its habit is very different : instead 

 of an erect stem rising high above the radical leaves, we 

 have a plant with a half-recumbent stem, scarcely exceed- 

 ing the radical leaves ; instead of a short, dense pubescence 

 upon the calyx, we have numerous long loose hairs, which 

 are well represented in the plate : but with this peculiarity 

 of habit, and slight difference in the calyx, the distinction 



* What that plant may have been which was of such importance as to 

 cause a feud between two kings, each of whom claimed the merit of its 

 discovery, and which finally was named, in commemoration of the struggle, 

 ■reM/^miov, or the War-causing, we know not. Sprengel considers the plant 

 of Dioscorides to be the same as the modern Polemonium caeruleum ; but 

 if so, this classical war, like many of a more modern date, was for a very 

 worthless object. 



