240 VALERIANEiE 



worthy of notice, but by far the most remarkable is Nardostdchys 

 Jatamdnsi, the Spikenard of Scripture, and the Nardus of the 

 ancient Classical authors. It grows in Bhotan, in India, where 

 it is called Jatamansi. Even when green the young shoots are 

 pleasantly fragrant ; but its odorous quality is much strengthened 

 by drying the plant. The radical leaves surrounding one of the 

 young tufted shoots are torn up, along with a part of the very 

 fragrant root, and having been dried in the sun, or by artificial 

 heat, are sold as a drug. In ancient times this drug was con- 

 veyed by way of Arabia to Western Asia, and thus reached the 

 Hebrews. Judas valued the box of ointment with which Mary 

 anointed our Blessed Lord's feet at two hundred denarii (^6 

 ()S. 2d.). By the Romans it was considered so precious that 

 the poet Horace promises Virgil a cadus, or about three dozen 

 modern bottles, of wine for a small onyx-box full of spikenard. 

 It was a Roman custom in festive banquets, not only to crown 

 the guests with flowers, but also to anomt them with spikenard. 

 Other members of the Order still valued for a similar use are 

 Valeriana celtica and V. saliunca, which are believed to be the 

 Saliunca of Virgil and other ancient writers. They are natives 

 of the mountains of Styria and Carinthia, where their roots are 

 grubbed up with danger and difficulty by the peasants from 

 rocks on the borders of eternal snow. They are then tied in 

 bundles, and sold at a very low price to merchants, who send 

 them by way of Trieste to Turkey and Egypt, where they are 

 retailed at a great profit, or passed on to India and the interior 

 of Africa. They are used to scent baths. The roots of our 

 common Valerian {Valeriana officinalis) are used in medicine, 

 being a powerful stimulant to the nervous system in cases of 

 hysteria or epilepsy. 'Jliey have a very remarkable effect on cats, 

 producing a kind of intoxication. The seeds of the Red Spur- 

 Valerian {Kentrdnthus ruber) were used in former times in the 

 process of embalming the dead ; and some thus employed in 

 the twelfth century, on being removed from the cere-cloth in 

 the nineteenth century, and planted, are said to have germinated. 

 The young leaves of Lamb's Lettuce (Valerianella) are eaten 

 as salad, as also in Sicily are those of Kentrdnthus. 



I. Valeriana. — Corolla 5-lobed, pouched at the base; stamens 

 3 ; fruit I -chambered, crowned with a feathery pappus. 



*2. Kentranthus. — Corolla 5-lobed, spurred at the base; 

 stamen 1 ; fruit i -chambered, crowned with a feathery pappus. 



3. Valerianella. — Corolla ylohed, ohconic ; stamens ^; fruit 

 3-chambered, crowned with 3 — 5 small sepals. 



