RADIX VALERIANAE. 377 



VALERIANACE^. 



RADIX VALERIANiE. 

 Valerian Root; F. Racine cle Valeriane ; G. Baldrianwm^d. 



Botanical Origin — Valeriana offijcinalis L., an herbaceous peren- 

 nial plant, growing throughout Europe from Spain to Iceland, the 

 North Cape and the Crimea, and extending over Northern Asia to the 

 coasts of Manchuria. The plant is found in plains and uplands, 

 ascending even in Sweden to 1200 feet above the sea-level. 



In England, valerian is cultivated in many villages * near Chester- 

 field in Derbyshire, the wild plant which occurs in the neighbourhood 

 not being sufficiently plentiful to supply the demand. 



In Vermont, New Hampshire and New York, as weU as in Holland, 

 the plant is grown to some extent, but by far the largest supply 

 would appear to be grown in the environs of the German town 

 Colleda, not far from Leipzdg. 



Valerian is propagated by separating the young plants which 

 are developed at the end of runners emitted from the rootstock. 



The wild plant, according to the situation it inhabits, exhibits 

 several divergent forms. Among eight or more varieties noticed by 

 botanists,- we may especially distinguish a. major with a compar- 

 atively taU stem and all the leaves toothed, ^. minor {V. angustifolia 

 Tausch) with entire or slightly dentate leaves, and also V. samhucifolia 

 Mikan, having only 4 or 5 pairs of leaflets. 



History — The plant which the Greeks and Romans called ^ov or 

 Phu, and which Dioscorides and Pliny describe as a sort of wild nard, 

 is usually held to be some species of valerian.^ 



The word Valeriana is not found in the classical authors. We first 

 meet -with it in the 9th or 10th century, at which period and for long 

 afterwards, it was used as synonymous with Phvb or Fu. 



Thus in the writings of Isaac Judseus ^ occurs the following : — " Fu 

 id est Valeriana, melior rubea et tenuis et qvxB venit cle Aivnenia et est 

 diversa in sua complexions. . . ." 



Constantinus Africanus * — " Fu, id est Valeriana. Naturam habet 

 sicut spica nardi. . . ." 



The word ValeHane occurs in the recipes of the Anglo-Saxon 

 leeches written as early as the 11th century.® Valeriana, Amantilla 

 and Fu are used as synonymous in the Alphita, a medijeval vocabulary 

 of the school of Salernmn.' 



Saladinus^ of Ascoli directs {circa A.D. 1450) the collection in the 

 month of August of " radices fu id est valerianw." 



1 Namely Ashover, Woolley Moor, Mor- It must be remembered that this is a tran- 



ton, Stretton, Higham, Shirland, Pilsley, slation from the Arabic. How the word in 



North and South Wingfield, and Bracken- question stands in the original we have no 



field. From the produce of these villages, means of knowing. 



one wholesale dealer in Chesterfield ob- ' I>e omnibus medico eoffnitu necessariis, 



tained in 1872 about 6 tons (13,440 lb.) of Basil 1539. 348. 



root. * Leechdoms, Wortcunning and Starcraft 



3 Kegel, TentamenFloroR Ussuriemis, 1862 of early England, iiL (1866) 6. 136. 



(M€m. de rAcad^mie de St. Pdtersbourg). ' S. de Renzi, CoUectio Salernitana, iiL 



* V. officinalis L. and nine other species (1854) 271-322. 



occur in Asia ilinor (TchihatcheflF). * Compendium Aromatariorum, Bonon. 



^ Opera Omnia, Lugd. 1515, cap. 45. — 1488. 



