VALERIAN FAMILY 



effect was pleasing enough, but the chief value of the flower 

 cluster lay in its perfume. No bouquet of June from that garden 

 was really complete, unless a spray or two of Valerian added its 

 fragrance to the general total. For that garden sent forth in 

 its bouquets specimens of many kinds of flowers, rather than 

 many individuals of one kind. Valerian has been neglected in 

 modern gardens, but the flowers are of late beginning to ap- 

 pear in the shops as a filler or background in wreaths of brighter 

 blossoms. 



The Valerian of commerce is mostly imported from Europe, 

 though there is no reason why the plant should not be cultivated 

 here. The medicinal property resides in a volatile oil which is 

 abundant in the root. 



Red Valerian, Cendnihus ritber, is a compact bushy plant which 

 in summer is covered with many crimson flowers in thick clusters 

 terminating leafy stalks. Foliage gray-green. An attractive bor- 

 der plant. The name Jupiter's Beard serves to emphasize a 

 peculiar development of the calyx of all the Valerians. Before 

 the corolla falls the calyx is represented by a mere thickened 

 margin to the ovary, but as the fruit matures this unrolls and 

 shows itself to be a whorl of feathery appendages. Apparently 

 this is a very large name for a very small thing. 



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