V A L 



V A L 



of Breno. — Alfo, a town of Italy, in the department of 

 the Gogna ; 5 miles W. of Lumello. N. lat. 45° 8'. 

 ; E. long. 8° 40'. 



Valle Calamochica, a town of Soutli America, in the 

 ! province of Tucuman ; 40 miles N.E. of St. Louis, 

 i Valle RuJIic, a town of the ifland of Corfica, in the 

 I diftriil of La Porta. 



; Valle di Spagna, a town on the eaft coaft of the ifland 

 I of Cephalonia. 



I VALLEA, in Botany, owes its name to Mutis, who 

 ; fent the plant to Linnseus. In the Supplementum it is faid to 

 i commemorate a perfon named Valle, " praifed by Allioni." 

 •No one having vouchfafed to indicate where this praife is 

 1 beftowed, and De Theis having transferred the honour of 

 'the prefent genus, with true French patriotifm, to one of 

 i his own countrymen, Robert Valle, of Rouen, who pub- 

 lilhed, in 1500, fome Commentaries upon Pliny, we have 

 thought it necefTary to inquire into the matter; efpecially 

 'as the genus is well worth claiming. In a note to y^///Ws 

 \Rariorum Pedemonti'i Stirpium, Specimen primum, page 23, 

 I the myftery is unravelled, by a narrative, of which the fol- 

 : lowing is the fubftance. Dr. Valle, a phyfician of Turin, 

 'a botanift of no common merit, after having attentively in- 

 (Yeftigated the plants around that city, and thofe of the neigh- 

 bouring alps, was led by an ardent love of botany, and 

 other branches of natural hiftory, to procure, in 1747, the 

 i appointment of phyfician to the army in Corfica, in order 

 to examine the produftions of that country. There he' 

 • made ample coUe&ions of plants, feeds, fhells, infedls, and 

 i other things worthy of notice. But being more anxious to 

 : acquire knowledge than to take care of himfelf, the heat of 

 ;thc climate threw him into a violent fever, which carried 

 jhim off in three days. His dried Corfican plants, falling 

 into the barbarous hands of ignorant people, were all de- 

 iflroyed. Whatever his friend Allioni could meet with, by 

 Ithe afllflance of the family, he purchafed ; and tlius became 

 IpoffeflTed of numerous fpecimens, gathered by Dr. Valle 

 labout Savona, as well as in various parts of the alps, of 

 i which he had drawn up a defcription, after Tournefort's 

 |fyftem ; but this was completed no further than the firfl 

 ;four clafles. — The name of Valle therefore defcrves to be 

 ; embalmed with thofe of Bartfch, Borone, Lippi, and other 

 (premature martyrs to botany, who have juftly been thought 

 'worthy of fuch an unfading memorial — Linn. Suppl. 42. 

 iSchreb. Gen. 363. WiUd. Sp. PI. v. 2. I2IZ. Juff. 434. 



JToiret in Lam. Dift. v. 8. 318 Clafs and order, Polyan- 



\dria Monogynia. Nat. Ord. Tiliacea:, Juff.? 

 I Gen. Ch. Cal. Perianth inferior, of one leaf, in four or 

 ! five deep, ovate, ftriated, coloured, deciduous fegments. 

 I Cer. Petals four or five, obovate, three-cleft, rather larger 

 ; than the calyx. Neftary a flattifh, undulated, fhining, co- 

 I loured border, under the germen. Stam. Filaments nume- 

 ] rous, 30 — 40, avvl-fhaped, flattifh, coloured, incurved, fliorter 

 ithan the calyx, inferted into the receptacle, beneath the 

 i neftary ; anthers linear, ereft, with two pores at the fum- 

 I mit. Fiji. Germen fuperior, ovate ; ftyle nearly cylindri- 

 j cal, as long as the calyx ; ftigma four or five flender divi- 

 I fions. Peru. Capfule with four or five angles and as many 

 I valves, each valve appropriated to two cells. Seeds feveral. 

 i Eff. Ch. Calyx in four or five deep fegments, inferior. 

 I Petals four or five, three-cleft. Stigmas four or five. 

 ! Capfule with four or five valves, twice as many cells, and 

 feveral feeds. 



I. V.ppularis. Linn. Suppl. 266. Willd. n. i.— Na- 



I tive of the colder parts of New Granada. A tree, twelve 



feet high, with round, ftriated, leafy, hairy branches. Leaves 



akerna-te, on hairy ftalks an inch long, fpreading, iiniple, 



heai-t-fhaped, acute, entire, two or three inches long and 

 half as broad, fingle-ribbed, beautifully reticulated with 

 innumerable veins ; fniooth and fhining above ; paler, clothed 

 with fhaggy tawny hairs, efpecially about the rib and larger 

 veins, beneadi. i'/z^a/jj rather large, leafy, kiduey-fhaped, 

 entire, ftalked, in pairs at the bafe of each footftalk, and 

 clafping the ftem above it. Flotuers blood-red, near an 

 inch in diameter, in forked, cymofe, hairy, axillary, and 



terminal panicles, fliorter than the leaves Linnaeus cites 



Mutis, Amer. v. 7. t. 10, by which botanifts have been led 

 to underftand, that Mutis had publiflied an important work 

 on American plants, extending to feven volumes, at leaft. 

 But in fa6l no fuch work exitts. The reference is, in every 

 point, erroneous, and alludes merely to a coUeftion of 

 thirty-two Indian-ink drawings of Mexican plants, fent by 

 that learned Spaniard, with numerous dried fpecimens, toLin- 

 nasus. (See Mutis.) From his drawing of the Vallea, 

 compared with the fpecimen, we havt, as our readers may 

 obferve, ventured to correft fome part of the generic cha- 

 rafters. By that drawing the feed-vejfel appc»s to have 

 four valves, ( fometimes, it fcems, varying to five, ) each of 

 which has inflexed edges, befides a central partition ; and 

 thefe, all meeting at a central column, may eafily be con- 

 ceived to form a capfule of eight or ten cells, explaining the 

 ftrange exprefTion in the Supplementum, of " hicuUs bilocula- 

 rihus." Several circumflances indicate the affinity we have 

 hinted above, of this genus, to Juffieu's TiliacEj^ ; fee 

 that article. 



VALLEFREDA, in Geography, a town of Naples, in 

 Lavora ; 8 miles N.W. of Sezza. 



VALLELONGA, a town of Italy, in Calabria Ultra ; 

 18 miles E.N.E. of Nicotcra. 



VALLENC'AY, a town of France, in the department 

 of the Indre ; 21 miles N. of Cliateauroux. N. lat. 47° 10'. 

 E. long. 1° 38'. 



VALLENGEN, or Vallanuen. See Valen'gin. 



VALLERAUQUE, a town of France, in the depart- 

 ment of the Gard ; 6 miles N. of Le Vigan. 



VALLERS, a town of France, in tlic department of 

 the Indre and Loire ; 12 miles W.S.W. of Tours. 



VALLESIA, in Botany, thus named in the Flora Peru- 

 viana, after Dr. Francis Valles, phyfician to Philip II. of 

 Spain, and author of a work, amongft others, on the plants 

 of the holy fcriptures ; free from herefy, no doubt, if not 

 from error. — " Fl. Peruv. v. 2. 26. t. 151. f. B." Poiret 

 in Lamarck Dift. v. 8. 319. — Clafs and order, Pcntandria 

 Monogynia. Nat. Ord. Conlortit, Linn. Apocincit, .Tuff. 



Gen. Ch. Cal. Perianth inferior, fmall, of one leaf, in five 

 acute fegments. Cor. of one petal, funnel-fhaped ; tube 

 much longer than the calyx, fwclling upwards ; hmb flat, in 

 five ovate, equal, fpreading fegments. Stam. Filaments 

 five, very fhort, inferted into the upper part of the tube ; 

 anthers arrow-fhaped, in the mouth of the corolla. Pift. 

 Germen fuperior, oval, cloven ; ftyle thread-fliaped, as long 

 as the tube of the corolla ; ftigma obtufe. Peric. Drup.13 

 two, oval, obtufe, divaricated, of one cell. Seed. Nut 

 folitary, oval, woody, fibrous, ftriated, with a folitary 

 kernel. 



Eff. Ch. Drupas two. Nuts folitary, fibrous. Corolla 

 funnel-lhaped. Anthers fimple, arrow-lhaped. 



I. \ . dichotoma. Forked Valletia. Fl. Peruv. as above. 

 Poir. n. 1. {"V. cymbcefoha; Orteg. Dec. 5.58." 

 Rauwolfia glabra ; Cavan. Ic. v. 3. 50. t. 297. Willd. 

 Sp. PI. V. I. 1218. Lamarck DidL v. 6. %i. See Rau- 

 wolfia, n. 2.) — Native of Peru and New Spain, hjhrub 

 eight or ten feet high, with fmooth, flexible, round, al- 

 teniate branches. Leaves alternate, on fhort ftalks, ovato- 

 ,^ C 2 lanceolatcj 



