VAHx] 



QL\)2 Crcatfuru of i&fltang. 



1200 



white flowers, producing pear-shaped or 

 round fruits filled with granular pulp, in 

 which the bean-like seeds nestle. Their 

 calyx is five-parted, without glands ; their 

 corolla has a five-cleft limb and a cylin- 

 drical tube, hairy inside, but destitute of 

 scales at the mouth, and somewhat bulged 

 out at the base, where the stamens are in- 

 serted ; and their single two-celled ovary is 

 seated within a cup-shaped disk, and bears 

 a short thick style and long conical stigma, 

 tipped with two narrow erect lobes. [A. SJ 



VAHLTA. A genus of Saxifragacece from 

 Africa and Asia. They are subdichotomous 

 herbs, often more or less woolly, with 

 opposite linear or lanceolate leaves, and 

 thin axillary white shortly-stalked flowers, 

 which have the calyx-tube adherent to the 

 ovary, and the limb five-parted, the petals 

 spreading, the stamens five, the styles two, 

 and the capsule one-celled, opening be- 

 tween the styles. V. capensis has the aspect 

 of a Silene. [J. T. S.] 



VAILLANTTA. A genus of Galiacece, 

 containing two species of annual branch- 

 ing herbs indigenous to Southern Europe. 

 It is nearly allied to Galium, from which 

 it differs in having a campanulate corolla, 

 and in the flowers being arranged in threes, 

 of which the central one is perfect and 

 four-cleft, while the lateral are barren and 

 three-cleft. French : Vaillantie. [W. C] 



VAINGA. An Indian name for the gum- 

 resin of Pterocarpus Marsupium. 



VALBRICK. The Danish name for the 



Maple. 



VALDIVIA. A genus of Saorifragacece, 

 consisting of a single species of ornamental 

 aspect, V. Guyana, a native of Chili. It is 

 distinguished by the following among 

 other peculiarities :— Calyx-tube connate 

 with theovai-y, the limb five-cleft; corolla 

 of five to seven perigynous converging 

 petals; stamens Ave to seven, with subu- 

 late filaments, and oblong anthers dehis- 

 cing longitudinally; ovary inferior three- 

 celled, with two placentas in each cell 

 affixed to the central angle ; style simple, 

 persistent; stigma capitate, three-furrow- 

 ed ; capsule three-celled, inferior, crowned 

 by the persistent calyx-limb ; seeds nume- 

 rous. The species is an evergreen herba- 

 ceous perennial, with rather large spathu- 

 late oblong rugose serrated radical leaves, 

 and short erect pyramidal panicles of pretty 

 rose-coloured Bowers, the tube-like portion 

 of which is angular, and the tips of the 

 petals recurved ; the flowers are three- 

 quarters of an inch long. The plant is 

 now an inmate of our gardens. [T. M.] 



VALENTINIA. A genus of Sapindacem, 

 comprising a "West Indian shrub, with 

 sessile rigid leaves, wavy and spiny at the 

 margins like those of the holly, and flowers 

 placed in umbel-like groups at the ends 

 of the branches. The calyx is five-parted, 

 scarlet, spreading, persistent; corolla none; 

 stamens eight ; ovary free, roundish ; style 

 thick ; capsule somewhat pulpy, dividing 

 into three or four revolute valves, white at 



first but becoming scarlet ; seeds three or 

 four, embedded in yellow pulp. [M. T. M.] 



VALERIAN. Valeriana. — , GREEK. 

 Polemvnium cceruleum. — , RED. Centran- 

 thus ruber. 



VALERIANACE2E. {Valerianece, Vale- 

 riamvorts.) An order of monopetalous 

 dicotyledons, consisting of herbs usually 

 strong-scented or aromatic (especially their 

 roots), with radical or opposite entire or 

 piunately-divided leaves, and rather small 

 but often elegant flowers, in terminal cymes 

 or panicles, rarely contracted into heads. 

 They agree with Compositce trndDipsacem in 

 their inferior one-celled ovary with a single 

 ovule, in their calyx being often reduced 

 to a membrane or feathery pappus border- 

 ing the top of the ovary, and in the inser- 

 tion of the stamens in the corolla-tube 

 alternating with its lobes ; but the flowers 

 are not collected into heads resembling a 

 single blossom, the anthers are free, the 

 ovule is pendulous, and the seed has no 

 albumen. The corolla is sometimes irre- 

 gular, with the stamens fewer than its 

 lobes, and the ovary has occasionally two 

 additional empty cells. There are abou^ 

 150 species known, natives of temperate' 

 climates, chiefly of the mountains of the 

 Northern Hemisphere or of South America, 

 ascending sometimes to great elevations. 

 They are distributed into about a dozen 

 genera, Valeriana, Centranthus, and Vale- 

 rianella being the most familiar examples. 



VALERIANA. An extensive genus of 

 herbaceous plants, the type of the order 

 Valerianacem. The species are widely dis- 

 tributed over Tropical and Extratropical 

 America, India, and Central Europe, and 

 j more sparingly in North America. For the 

 : most part they especially affect mountain- 

 ous districts, although by no means con- 

 fined to such localities. They have a pe- 

 rennial rootstock, with a tuft of leaves at 

 its top, from amid which the erect flower- 

 ing stem is thrown up. The form of the 

 I leaves is frequently very different even on 

 the same plant, the lowermost being en- 

 tire, while the upper ones are more or less 

 j pinnatedly divided. The flowers are white 

 j or red, generally numerous, and arranged 

 in terminal panicles or heads. The limb of 

 the calyx at the time of flowering is entire 

 and rolled inwards, but as the fruit ripens 

 I it gradually unrolls, and forms a bell-shaped 

 | feathery pappus, consisting of numerous 

 finely-branched hairs. The corolla has a 

 I short tube, without a spur. Fruit small, 

 i indehiscent, one-celled, one-seeded when 



ripe. 

 | Many of the species of this genus are or 

 : have been employed in medicine, on ac-r 

 count of their highly stimulant and anti- 

 ; spasmodic properties. That now most used 

 is the "Wild Valerian, common in marshy 

 and wet places in this country and Cen- 

 tral Europe, the roots of which are col- 

 lected for medicinal purposes ; they have 

 a warm aromatic slightly bitter taste, and 

 when dry a peculiar fetid odour, which 

 seems to be especially agreeable to cats, 



