398 



THE VALERIAN FAMILY. 



II. VALERIAN. VALERIANA. 



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 nume- 

 rous, 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, and 5 short lobes. Stamens 3. Fruit small, Lseeded, crowned 

 with the pappus. 



A large genus, with the geographical range of the family, but most 

 abundant in mountain regions, where some species ascend to great ele- 

 vations. 



Lower leaves undivided. 



Stem 6 to 8 inches high. Radical leaves and segments of the 



upper ones entire 1. Marsh V. 



Stem 2 to 4 feet. Leaves large, broadly cordate, and 



toothed 3. Fyrenean V, 



All the leaves pinnately divided, with several pairs of seg- 

 ments 2. Common V. 



1. Marsh Valerian. Valeriana dioica, Linn. (Fig. 478.) 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 628.) 



Rootstock emitting creeping runners 

 and erect flowering stems, 6 to 8 inches 

 high. Radical leaves and those of the 

 runners on long stalks, ovate, entire, \ 

 to 1 inch long ; stem-leaves few, mostly 

 pinnate, with one oval or oblong termi- 

 nal segment and several pairs of smaller 

 and narrow ones, all entire. Flowers 

 small, of a pale rose-colour, in terminal 

 corymbs, mostly unisexual ; the tube of 

 the corolla short. 



A marsh plant, spread over a great 

 part of Europe and eastward to the 

 Caucasus, but apparently more common 

 in the west than in the east ; extending 

 northward into southern Scandinavia. 

 In most English counties and in a few of 

 the southern Scotch ones, but not re- 

 corded from Ireland. Fl. early summer. 





Fig. 478. 



