VALERIA'NA MONTA'NA. 



MOUNTAIN VALERIAN. 



Class. Order. 



TRIAICDRIA. MONOGYNIA. 



Natural Order. 

 DIPSACE*:. 



No. 36. 



Of the origin of the term Valeriana we have 

 nothing certain on record. Some persons have 

 supposed it to have originated in the name of an 

 eminent physician, Valerius, who is said to have 

 first used one of the species of it in medicine; 

 whilst others think the term may have come from 

 the Latin valere, to be well. Montana, from the 

 Latin mons, a mount. 



We are not aware that this species has been em- 

 ployed in medicine, but the Valeriana officinalis is 

 not only used against particular disorders; but, 

 according to Gerarde, was in his day employed as 

 a pot herb by the inhabitants of the north. He 

 quotes a lame couplet in its praise, and says, 'some 

 woman poet or other hath made these verses.* 

 Could this venerable herbalist be introduced to 

 some of our ' woman poetry* of the nineteenth cen- 

 tury, we think he would not, so unceremoniously, 

 cast a slur on the productions of the fair sex. 



It flourishes in a light dry soil, and is readily 

 increased by a separation of its roots. Though 

 increase be not wanted, it will still be desirable to 

 divide and transplant it occasionally. 

 Hon. Kew. 2, v.l, 74. 



