VALEKIANE7E. 



399 



2. Common Valerian. Valeriana officinalis, Linn. (Fig. 479.) 

 (Eng. Eot. t. 698. All-7ieal.) 



Rootstock short and thick, with creep- 

 ing runners, and one or rarely more erect 

 stems, 2 to 3 or even 4 feet high, nearly- 

 simple, and more or less hairy at the 

 base. Leaves pinnate, with from 9 to 

 21, or even more, lanceolate segments, 

 1 to 2 or even 3 inches long, and much 

 varying in breadth, marked with a few 

 coarse teeth, and more or less sprinkled 

 with hairs underneath; the upper leaves 

 few and distant. Flowers small, white 

 or tinged with pink, in broad terminal 

 corymbs. 



In moist situations, sides of ditches 

 and streams, and damp woods, extending 

 over the whole of Europe and .Russian 

 Asia to the Arctic Circle, becoming a 

 mountain plant in the south. Common 

 in Britain. Fl. summer. A variety with 

 fewer and broader segments to the leaves * *£• 479. 



has been distinguished under the name of V. sambucifolia. 



3. Pyrenean Valerian. Valeriana pyrenaica, Linn. (Fig. 

 (Eng. Bot. 1. 1591.) 



A taller plant even than the common 

 V., and much coarser ; the leaves broadly 

 heart-shaped, coarsely toothed, often 5 

 or 6 inches long and broad, with more 

 prominent veins than in most Valerians, 

 the lower ones undivided, the upper 

 ones, in addition to the large terminal 

 segment, have 1 or sometimes 2 pairs of 

 smaller ones on the short footstalk. 

 Flowers like those of the common V., in 

 large, flat terminal corymbs. 



A Pyrenean species, which, having es- 

 caped from cultivation, is now well-esta- 

 blished in woods and plantations in some 

 part3 of central and southern Scotland 

 and western England. Fl. summer. 



Fig. 480. 



480.) 



