216 THE VALERIAN FAMILY. [Cenlranthus. 



XLI. VALERIANEJE. 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 MonojpetaU by 

 the seed-like fruit and reduced number of stamens. 



Stamen 1. 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 . . . 2. Valeriana. 



Annuals. Fruit not crowned by a feathery pappus . . .3. Valerianella. 



I. CENTRANTHUS. CENTRANTH. 



Habit, calyx, and fruit of Valeriana. 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 Valerian. — 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. 

 Fl. all summer. 



II. 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, 



