116 VALERIANEzE— VALERIAN TRIBE 



that it smells strongly of patchouli. Gerarde says of our wild Valerian, " It 

 hath been had, and is to this day among poore people of our northern parts, 

 in such veneration, that no brothe, pottage, or physicall meates are worth 

 anything if Setewall were not at an end ; wherefore some woman poet or 

 other hath made these verses : — 



" ' They that would have their heale 

 Must put Setewall in their keale.' " 



But before the woman poet wrote this, Chaucer had alluded to " Canell and 

 Setewal of pris," and had elsewhere used this comparison : — 



" But he himselfe was swete as any roots 

 Of licoris, or any Setewall." 



Country people of our days commonly use the leaves as an application to 

 wounds ; hence it is often called All-heal. Several old writers, as Michael 

 Drayton, refer to its healing virtues. Its odour is peculiarly agreeable to cats ; 

 they chew the roots and leaves eagerly, and appear to be intoxicated by the 

 effects. Hence it is also known as Cat's Valerian. 



3. Heart-leaved Valerian (F. p7/rendica). — Leaves heart-shaped, 

 toothed, and serrated, stalked ; iipper ones with 1 or 2 pairs of small lan- 

 ceolate leaflets ; root perennial. This plant is apparently naturalized in some 

 of the Scottish woods. It is a native of the Pyrenees, and, being cultivated 

 in gardens, has established itself in some of our woods and plantations. 



3. Corn-salad (Fedia). 



1. Common Corn-salad (F. olitdria). — Leaves long and narrow, wider 

 towards the end, and somewhat toothed near the base ; flowers in leafy 

 heads; capsule inflated, crowned by the three calyx teeth; root annual. 

 This plant, common in corn-fields and on dry banks, is not very attractive. 

 Its flowers are very small, white, and are more or less tinted with blue or 

 lilac, appearing in April. The stems are from four to eight inches high, 

 repeatedly two-forked, and the leaves are of a pale delicate green. The 

 French call the plant Muche, Salade de prclre, and Salade de chanoine. It was 

 formerly called, in England, White Pot-herb, and Lamb's Lettuce. Its young 

 leaves taste like lettuce, and are still sometimes cultivated for salad ; but the 

 far larger size of the garden lettuce renders it a more desirable plant for the 

 kitchen-garden, though the wild herb yields an earlier salad, for the leaves 

 are fit to be gathered by March. There is no doubt, from its old French 

 names, that it was one of the vegetables reared in the kitchen-garden of the 

 monastery. Gerarde says of it, " In winter, and the first months of spring, 

 it serves for a salad-herbe, and is with pleasure eaten with vinegar, salt, and 

 oile, as other sallades be, among which it is none of the worst." 



2. Carinated Corn-salad (F. carindta). — Fruit oblong, boat-shaped, 

 crowned with a straight tooth ; the two empty cells thin, and curving 

 inwards at the edge ; flowers in dense cymes ; root-leaves tapering at the 

 base ; stem-leaves oblong ; root annual. This very rare plant is found on 

 some hedge-banks of England, bearing its pale-blue flowers from April to 

 June. It is not regarded as a true native, and may be only a variety of 

 F. oUtoiia. 



