310 VALERIANACE.E. 



the plants in this order possess properties worthy of 

 notice, but by far the most remarkable is Valeriana 

 Jatamansi, the Spikenard of Scripture, and the Nardus 

 of the ancient classical authors. It grows on the hills 

 of Butan, in India, where it is called Dshatamansi. The 

 root leaves, shooting up from the ground, and surround- 

 ing the young stem, are torn up, along with a part of the 

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

 heat, are sold as a drug. Two merchants of Butan, of 

 whom Sir W. Jones caused inquiries to be made, related, 

 that the plant shoots up straight from the earth, and that 

 it is then, as to colour, like a green ea-r of wheat ; that its 

 fragrance is pleasant, even while it is green, but that 

 its odorous quality is much strengthened by merely dry- 

 ing the plant ; that it grows in Butan on hills, and even 

 on plains in many places ; and that in that country it 

 is gathered and prepared for medicinal purposes. In 

 ancient times, this drug was conveyed by way of Arabia 

 to southern Asia, and thus it reached the Hebrews. 

 Judas valued the box of ointment with which Mary 

 anointed our blessed Lord's feet at two hundred denarii 

 (1. 9s. 2d.). By the Eomans 1 , it was considered so pre- 

 cious, that the poet Horace promises to Virgil a whole 

 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 nowers, but also to anoint them with spikenard. 

 Eastern nations procure from the mountains of Austria 

 the Valeriana Celtica and V. Saliunca to perfume their 

 baths. Their roots are grubbed 'up with danger and 

 difficulty by the peasants of Styria and Carinthia, 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, and passed on- 

 wards to the nations of India and Ethiopia. The seeds 

 of Centranthus ruber (Eed Valerian) were used in 

 former times in the process of embalming the dead ; 



