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XXII. Observations on the Species of Fedia. By Joseph Woods, Esq., F.L.S. 



Read April Slst, 1835. 



Modern botanists are generally agreed that the several varieties of the 

 Valeriana Locusta of Linnaeus, with the addition of one or two allied species, 

 form a very natural genus, separated from Valerian by habit as well as by the 

 want of a feathery crown to the seed. For this they have mostly adopted the 

 name of Fedia, of uncertain derivation, though supposed by some authors to 

 come from Hasdus, or Fcedus, a kid. It was first introduced by Adanson, 

 but, according to De Candolle, not applied by him to this genus. De CandoUe 

 himself again separates from this group two plants, which differ from the rest 

 in having a ringent flower with a long tube, and only two stamens. To these 

 he confines the name of Fedia, and calls the others Valerianella. I am not 

 disposed to follow him in the separation of these genera, and still less so in 

 his nomenclature. Even if out of respect for Tournefort, whose name Lin- 

 naeus appears to have altered merely to please his ear, we prefer Brunella to 

 Prunella ; and if we restore Lampsana, a name adopted by Vaillant from 

 Dioscorides, to the place of Lapsana, there is still no suflScient reason for 

 adopting such a name as Valerianella. The rules given by Linnaeus for the 

 formation of generic names are perhaps in some instances arbitrary and fan- 

 ciful; but those which direct us to avoid diminutives and names compounded 

 of those of other genera are so evidently just and reasonable, that one is apt 

 to suspect that those who refuse them are under the influence of some preju- 

 dice, or are guided by national partiality. The French botanists complain 

 that Linnaeus was sometimes misled by an unworthy jealousy of the talents 

 and reputation of Tournefort. Do they not themselves show a vrish to depre- 

 ciate Linnaeus, and to keep him out of sight as much as possible ? 



We are indebted, I believe, to De Candolle for pointing out some excellent 

 subdivisions in this genus, taken from the structure of the fruit. He distin- 

 guishes : 



3 l2 



