Nfciw YORK 



BOTANICAL 



OARDBN 



LXVIIL— VALERIANACE^. 



Perennial herbs ; 1. opp., without stip., pinnate ; fl. small, 

 regular, bisexual, in cymes ; cal.-tube adnate to ov., segm. lo, 

 scarcely visible in fl., but becoming long and filiform in fr. ; 

 cor. funnel-shaped, lobes 5, imbricate; stam. 3, inserted on 

 base of cor.-tube, anth. distinct ; ov. inferior, 3-celled, but 

 only one cell fertile, with a single pendulous ovule ; fruit dry, 

 indehiscent, crowned by the pappus-like cal. ; seed solitary, 

 without endosperm. 



A small Family of temperate regions ; our only species is montane. 



VAIiERIANA, Z. 



For characters, see Order. — Sp. 150; 3 in Fl. B. Ind. 



V. IVIoonii, Am. ex Clarke., in FL B. Ind. iii. 213 (1881). 

 V. villosa. Moon Cat. 5 (non Thunb.). V. Hardwickii, Thw. Enum. 

 159 (non Wall.). C. P. 150. 

 Fl. B. Ind. iii. 213. 



A perennial herb with a horizontal rootstock, giving off 

 numerous long roots ; stem 2-4 ft., erect, stout, furrowed, 

 glabrous or slightly hairy, hollow ; radical and lower cauline 

 1. pinnate, on long erect stout petioles dilated at base and 

 furrowed above, upper cauline ones on very short petioles, 

 Iflts. 3-7, opp. or alt., sessile, ovate, tapering to base which is 

 often unequal-sided, acute, more or less deeply and coarsely 

 dentate-serrate, glabrous or hairy on veins beneath, flaccid, 

 the terminal the largest ; fl. numerous, small, sessile, cymes 

 large, terminal, paniculate-corymbose, repeatedly dichotomous, 

 close in fl., becoming lax in fruit, bracts linear or oblong, 

 opposite, persistent ; cor.-lobes oblong, obtuse ; stam. much 

 exserted; fruit very small, ^ in., crowned with 10 long slender 

 plumose cal. -segm,, oval-oblong, much compressed, plano- 

 convex, with 3 filiform ribs on convex (dorsal) and i on flat 

 (ventral) surface, quite glabrous, margins sharp. 



Upper montane zone; common. Adam's Peak (Moon). Fl. Feb.- 

 April ; pale pinkish-violet. 



Endemic. 



'tft^ is almost certainly a variety with smooth fruit of the Himalayan 

 V. ^^divickii, Wall.; and V. Hookeriatia, W. and A., of the Nilgiri 

 Mts.^TTgured in Wight, 111. t. 129, appears to be another form. Dries a 

 PAF^T III. 15 



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