202 VALERIANACE^. 



VALERIANACE/E. 



VALERIANA. f.b.i. 76 m. 



Valerian. 

 Herbs with simple or sparingly branched stem ; 

 opposite, pinnate or occasionally simple, leaves ; and 

 nmiierous small pink or white flowers in much branched 

 terminal, corymbose panicles. Ovary inferior with no 

 calyx-teeth ; corolla tube slender, usually swollen on 

 one side near the base, five-lobed ; stamens three only ; 

 ovary inferior, three-celled, ripening into a one-seeded 

 dry fruit crowned by a pappus of a few feathery hairs. 



Species about 150, in moist temperate or cool regions ; 

 mostly in Europe, America and Asia; a few in Africa; but 

 none in Australia or New Zealand {Ger. Baldrian). 

 Leaves simple or with one or two leaflets below the m.ain 



blade V. leschenaultii. 



Leaves pinnate, leaflets five, broad .... V. hardwickii. 

 Leaves pinnate, leaflets seven, end leaflet broad, lateral narrow ; 



fruit hairy V. hookeriana. 



Leaves pinnate, leaflets many, all narrow ; fruit glabrous . . . 



V. beddomei. 



Valeriana hardwickii Wall, Cat- 433 ! ; F.B.I. iii 213, 

 in 9 ; Five-leaf Valerian. 



Main roots 3 to 6 inches large, and Ye inch thick, 

 white, all from the stem-base, undivided. Stem herbace- 

 ous, iVz to 3 feet, pubescent at the nodes, only slightly so 

 elsewhere. Radical leaves disappearing before flowering 

 time : of stem leaves the leaflets usually five, occasionally 

 more, ovate ; the terminal largest and not much longer 

 than broad, the lateral slightly narrower but not much 

 so. Corymbs in early flower l to 3 inches across ; but in 

 fruit much larger and more open, becoming a panicle a 

 foot high and wide, the branches repeatedly forking. 

 Fruit Y, by 1/16 inch cylindrical ovoid, hairy. Wight 

 Ic. tt. 1045-6. 



