Flora of the Malayan. Peninsula. 21 



Order LX. VALBEIANE^. 



Herbaceous (as regards the Indo-Malayan species). Leaves oppo- 

 site, exstipuiate, their bases often connected by an interpetiolar Hne or 

 ridge ; entire, pinnatifid or pinnate. Flotvers sessile, in cymes, usually 

 hermaphrodite but sometimes polygamous or dioecious, bracteate. 

 Calyx-tube adnate to the ovary, the limb in the flower small, in the 

 fruit often enlarged or pappose. Corolla superior, gamopetalous, its 

 tube cylindric or gibbous or spurred at the base ; the limb with 3 to 5 

 imbricate lobes, often irregular. Staviens 1 to 4, on the tube, usually 

 exserted. Ovary inferior with a single perfect, 1-ovuled cell, and 2 

 barren empty cells ; style filiform ; stigma 2- or 3-lobed or entire ; ovule 

 in the fertile cell pendulous from the apex of the loculus. Fruit inde- 

 hiscent, dry, 1-seeded, the 2 barren cells enlarged or represented by 

 narrow ridges. Seed pendulous, with very little or no albumen ; 

 embryo straight, radicle superior. — Distrib. About 350 species, in 

 temperate climates ; generally diffused, but absent from Australia and 

 South Africa. 



Valebiana, Linn. 



Perennial herbs. Leaves entire, pinnatifid or pinnate, the radical 

 often undivided and with long petioles. Flotoers in cymes, corymbosely 

 paniculate ; bracts small, oblong or linear, free or nearly so, persistent. 

 Calyx-limb in flower obsolete, in fruit developing into a ring of from 

 5 to 15 feathery bristles, united at their bases into a short funnel-shaped 

 tube. Corolla-tuhe funnel-shaped, its base often sub-gibbous ; limb 

 with 5 spreading lobes, both tube and limb pink or white. Stamens 3. 

 Ovary 3-celled, only 1 cell containing 1 ovule ; stigma sub-entire or 

 shortly 3-fid. Fruit oblong, plano-convex, with 6 ribs, 1-celled; the 

 2 barren cells obsolete, crowned by the persistent pappose calyx. 

 — Distrib. About 180 species in moist temperate regions. 



Valeriana Hardwickii, Wall, in Eoxb. Fl. Ind., ed. Carey & 

 Wall. I. 166. Boot fibrous. Stem erect, 1 to 3 feet high, pubescent 

 below, mostly glabrous upwards but pilose or barbate at the nodes. 

 Eadical leaves ovate, acute, on long petioles ; stem leaves unequally 

 pinnatifid, the segments 3 to 5, the upper the longest, all lanceolate or 

 ovate-lanceolate and irregularly toothed. Panicles lax, often as much 

 as a foot long, the branches dichotomous, with small subulate bracteoles 

 at the forks ; fruit hairy. Wall. Cat. 432, PL As. Ear. 39, t. 263 ; 

 Don Prod. PI. Nep. 159 ; DC. Prod. IV. 640 ; Clarke in Hook. fil. Fl. 

 Br. Ind. III. 213. V. Hardwickiana, Eoem. & Schult., Syst. I., Mant. 

 259. V. tenera, Wall. Cat. 435 ; DC. Mem. Valer. 16 ; Prod. IV. 640. 



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