LXIV. YALERIANACE^. 



Valeriana officinalis. 



The most complete type of this family is not the Valeriana {^g, 



396, 404-408) from which it 

 derives its name, but rather V. 

 Jatamansiy a plant of northern 

 India, constituting the genus 

 Nardostachys ' (fig. 397-399). 

 Its flowers are hermaphrodite and 

 irregular. The receptacle is sac- 

 like in form, the ovary being 

 lodged in its cavity while its 

 narrow mouth bears the calyx and 

 corolla. The former is gamose- 

 palous, nearly regular, with five 

 or more deep divisions,^ slightly 

 imbricate. The corolla, gamo- 

 petalous, almost campanulate, is 

 suddenly attenuated at the base 

 to a short narrow tube, sur- 

 mounted anteriorly by a slight 

 gibbosity the base of which has 

 an oblong glandular surface. 

 The limb is divided into five 

 lobes, slightly unequal, imbricate 

 in the bud so that the anterior is 

 generally covered by the laterals 

 and these by the two posterior. 

 The stamens, four in number, 

 nearly equal, are composed of a 

 Fig. 396. Fioriferous branch. filament ' inserted near the base 



of the corolla-tube, and an in- 

 trorse anther, the two cells of which, dehiscing longitudinally, are 



1 DC. M^tn. Valerian. 4, t. 1, 2 ; Frodr. iv. ^ From six to eight, somewhat ui equal. 



624. — Spach, Suit, a Buffion, x. 307. — Endl. ' At first twice curved in contrary directions 



Gen. n. 2179.— B. H. Gen. ii. 163, n. 2. like the letter S. 



