POLEMONIUM REPTANS. CREEPING GREEK VALERIAN. 7 I 



The unfortunate confusion in the name results, as such seem- 

 ingly trifling mistakes often do, in errors of great consequence. 

 The true Valerians have great medical virtues, perhaps great 

 enough to warrant ancient kings fighting about them, and thus 

 we find the old Herbalists, with Culpeper leading, assuring us 

 that the " Greek Valerian is under Mercury, and is alexipharnic, 

 sudorific, and cephalic, and useful in malignant fevers and pesti- 

 lential distempers ; " but as soon as it was proved not to be a 

 Valerian, it was found that the virtues were wholly imaginary. 



Our species has been long known to botanists, being referred 

 to by Gronovius in Clayton's early collections from Virginia. It 

 differs from the older known Poleinonhim cceruleiim in its creep- 

 ing habit, besides in other characters, and this characteristic 

 suggested the name 7'cptans, or "creeping Greek Valerian." In 

 Pennsylvania, where it is common in alluvial bottoms along rivers 

 and water-courses, it is often called "Forget-me-not;" but as it 

 has nothing in common with 



" The flower which has a flower as bright as noon, 

 And leaf as delicate as softest satin, 

 Called the Forget-me-not, but known as well 

 By twenty names I cannot stop to tell," 



as Sargent sings of it, it would be as well to let it drop. "Jacob's 

 Ladder" is sometimes used because of its ladder-like leaf It is 

 well to refer to these names in a history of the plant ; but " creeping 

 Greek Valerian " will probably prevail. It is one of the earliest 

 of our spring flowers, and brightens with a singular beauty the 

 half-shady places wherein it loves to grow. Longfellow, in his 

 beautiful poem, " Flowers," scarcely had this plant in his mind 

 when he wrote — 



" Everywhere about us are they growing, 



Some like stars to tell us Spring is come; 



Others, their blue eyes with tears o'erflowing. 



Stand like Ruth among the golden corn ; " 



as the " blue eyes " of our species seldom if ever look at us Irom 

 grain-fields ; but as we may often see its beautiful sky-blue flow- 



