RED VALERIAN. 63 



from the stage where it was only known and duly labelled 

 in the botanic garden. 



The rich mass of crimson blossom and the spurred 

 character of the flower will always render its identification 

 easy, but to these we may add some few other details of its 

 growth. The root-stock is perennial, and very freely branch- 

 ing, enabling it to take a firm hold in the crevices of which 

 it has once gained possession. The stems are stout, as befits 

 a plant that grows on the cliffs that face the ocean gales, 

 between one and two feet long, and very smooth in texture. 

 The leaves are long and pointed, growing opposite to each 

 other in pairs, and are either entirely without any cutting 

 in of the outline or are very slightly toothed. The flowers 

 are very numerous, and either of a rich crimson colour or 

 much more rarely pure white ; the spur is a very marked 

 feature, and may very readily be identified in our illustra- 

 tion of the plant. The fruit that succeeds the blossoms is 

 small and dry ; the border of the surrounding calyx forms 

 an elegant feathery rosette or pappus. Each flower only 

 contains one stamen, a very unusual number. The red 

 valerian may be found in flower during the whole of the 

 summer and well into the autumn months, its period of 

 blossoming being from about June to September, the 

 period of course varying somewhat according to the 

 locality, the warm and sheltered character of the southern 

 face of the Isle of Wight naturally leading to an earlier 

 flowering and a longer continuance of blossom than we 

 should find in other localities less favoured. 



Though we speak of the plant as a valerian, and Linnaeus 

 himself included it in that genus, it has since, for reasons 

 into which we need not here go, been placed in the genus 

 Centranthus, this term being derived from the two Greek 



