216 - ‘THE VALERIAN FAMILY. 
XLL VALERIANEE. THE VALERIAN FAMILY. 
_ Herbs, either annual or with a perennial, sometimes almost 
bushy stock, opposite leaves, and no stipules. Flowers in ter- 
minal corymbs or panicles, usually small and numerous, Calyx 
adherent to the ovary, the small border sometimes toothed, 
sometimes scarcely perceptible at the time of flowering, but 
unrolling afterwards into a feathery pappus. Corolla in the 
British genera monopetalous, tubular at the base, with 5 spread- 
ing lobes. Stamens always fewer than the lobes of the corolla. 
Fruit small, dry, and seed-like, with a single seed suspended 
from the top of the cell, with the addition frequently of 1 or 2 
imperfect or abortive empty cells. 
A natural family, not large, but widely diffused over a great part of 
the globe. Well characterised among inferior-fruited Monopetals by 
the seed-like fruit and reduced number of stamens. 
Stamen il. Tube of the corolla spurred at the base 1. CENTRANTHUS. 
Stamens 3. Tube of the corolla slightly swollen at the base, but 
not spurred. 
Perennials. Fruit crowned by a feathery pappus . 4 . 2. VALERIANA. 
Annuals.- Fruit not crowned by a feathery pappus.. : . 38. VALERIANELLA. 
I. CENTRANTHUS. CENTRANTH. 
Habit, calyx, and fruit of Valeriuna. Corolla with a more slender 
tube projected at the base into a little spur, and only 1 stamen. 
A small genus of the Mediterranean and Caucasian regions, 
1. C. ruber, DC. (fig. 484). Red Vulcrian.—Perennial stock much 
branched, forming when old an almost bushy, coarse tuft ; the whole 
plant quite glabrous and often somewhat glaucous, Stems stout, 1 to 
near 2 feet high. Leaves ovate-lanceolate, entire or scarcely toothed. 
Flowers numerous, red or rarely white, in dense cymes, forming a hand- 
some, oblong terminal panicle. Tube of the corolla 3 or 4 lines long, 
with a spur of at least a line. Border of the calyx unrolling in the ripe 
fruit into a little elegant, bell-shaped, feathery pappus. 
A native of rocky places in the Mediterranean region, but, long culti- 
vated for ornament, it has been naturalised on old walls, chalk-pits, 
&c., in central Europe, as in many localities in England and Ireland. 
Fi. all summer. 
rene 
Il, VALERIANA. VALERIAN. 
Herbs with a perennial stock and usually erect flowering stems. 
Leaves opposite, those of the stem usually pinnately divided or toothed, 
the lowest often entire. Flowers white or red, small, usually numerous, 
in terminal corymbs or panicles, sometimes contracted into heads. 
Calyx with a prominent border, at the time of flowering rolled inwards 
and entire, as the fruit ripens opening out into a little, bell-shaped, 
feathery pappus. Corolla with a short tube, not spurred at the base, 
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