JO POLEMONIUM REPTANS.—CREEPING GREEK VALERIAN. 
Phlox and Polemontum. Polemontum is readily distinguished 
from Phlox by its bell-shaped corolla, while, as is well known, 
the Phlox has its corolla mainly as a long slender tube. 
In regard to the history of the name, Polenzonium, the student 
may have some ground to complain of the text-books, as they 
so often have had to complain in similar cases. A French author 
of the last century says: “ Pliny tells us that many kings disputed 
the honor of having found the polemonum, which gave to the 
plant the name of Polemon, signifying war;” and Sir William J. 
Hooker tells us that “it was named from polemos, wav, accord- 
ing to Pliny this plant having caused a war between two kings 
who laid claim to its discovery.” The explanations read 
as if “this plant,” Polemonium ceruleum being in question, was 
the plant the “two” kings or the “many” kings fought over; 
but the plant is not a native of Greece, nor is it probable that 
Pliny had any knowledge whatever of “this plant,” and it is much 
better when inquiring why Tournefort called the plant Po/emo- 
gun, to say with Dr. Gray in the “Manual” “an ancient name 
of doubtful application.” And in his more recent “ Synoptical 
Flora of North America,” he even suggests that it is more prob- 
able Tournefort had in his mind to commemorate Polemon, the 
celebrated Athenian scholar, who succeeded Xenocrates in his 
famous school. 
The common name, Greek Valerian, is more easily traced. In 
older times, when the structure of plants was not well under- 
stood, groups were formed according to their external resem- 
blances. There is much in the habit of the genus to suggest the 
Valerian, and thus we find them in the writings of the old botan- 
ists. Dcedens, who wrote in 1616, calls it Valeriana greca, and 
Bauhin, thirty years later, Valeriana cerulea, though he takes 
occasion to remark that it “has nothing in common with the 
Valerian, except something in the shape of the leaves.” Finally 
taken from the Valerians, and given a separate name, Polemonium, 
by Tournefort, we can at least see exactly how it came by the 
name of Greek Valerian. 
