VALERIANA CEM 



509 



Cent rant /iHs rubei 



cymes, occasionally racemiform or spikelike. They inhabit all the 

 cold and temperate regions of the northern hemisphere, both old and 

 new world, and those of the southern hemi- 

 sphere in America. 



Centranthns (fig. 409) comprises Valerians 

 whose androecium is generally reduced to a 

 single stamen, that of the two laterals situate 

 on the side of the fertile ovarian cell. The 

 corolla has a bilabiate limb, a narrow tube 

 prolonged anteriorly at base to a long and 

 slender spur, and a sort of partition dividing 

 the tube to a considerable extent into two 

 narrow compartments, through one of which 

 pass the style and fertile stamen, whilst the 

 other is continued downwards into the spur. 

 Centranthiis comprises annual or perennial 

 herbs of the Mediterranean region, with oppo- 

 site, entire or partly dentate or pinnatisect 

 leaves, and flowers in compound terminal clusters of cymes. 



Fig. 409. Flower, ovary 

 and spur opened. 



This small family was not admitted by A.-L. de Jussieu ; he 

 placed ^ Valeriana, by him confounded with Valerianella,^ among the 

 DipsacecB, with which they have many affinities. It was A. -P. de 

 Candolle who, in 1815,^ established a family of Valerianece,^ the 

 study of which he followed up in a special Memoir,^ and in which he 

 included eleven genera : Patrinia, Nardostachijs, Dufresnia, Valerianella, 

 Astrephia, Fedia, Plectritis, Centranthus, Valeriana, Betckea and Tri- 

 plostegia. Three of these are, in our opinion, duplicate, and Triplo- 

 stegia has been referred to the true Dipsacew. The successors of 

 De Candolle have very slightly modified the constitution of this 

 family.^ Messrs. Bentham and Hookek^ retain nine genera and 



1 Gen. (1789) 195. 



3 Adanson had, however, in 1763 (Fam. des 

 Pl.'n. 152), distinguished i^(;(;fii? from Valeriana ; 

 he also placed in this same section his Folypre- 

 mum {Valerianella). 



3 Fl. Frang. (ed. 3) v. 232. 



" Valerianeee DC. Prodr. iv. (1830) 623, Ord. 

 99. — Valerianacece Lindl. Veff. Kingd. (1846) 



697, Ord. 270. In 1811, Dufresne had pub- 

 lished his well-known monograph : Histoire 

 Naturelle et Medicale de la Famille des Valeria- 

 vees (Montpellier, 41o). 



5 Notice sur la Famille des VaUrianees (1832). 



6 K. Desvx. Journ. But. ii. 174. — Bartl. Ord. 

 Nat. 130.— Endl. Gen. 350, Ord. 118. 



' Gen. ii. 151, Ord. 85. 



