W.B. — Essex ; On a garden wall at Marden Ash, a short mile from Ongar, 
nearly opposite to where the road branches off to Brentwood ( Mr. Borrer), 
very difficult to get at, and I have no doubt escaped from cultivation: W. A. 
Brommeld, in New Bot. Guide. — Shropshire ; Hedge-bank, close to the 
Long Lane Quarry, near Cheney Longville: W. A. Leighton, B. A. in FI. of 
Shropsh. Hedge-banks under the quarries near Leigh Hall, one mile from 
Grimmer Rocks: J. E. Bowman, Esq. ibid. Hedge-bank of a bye-road about 
a mile from the Craven Arms, eight miles W. of Ludlow: J. E. Bowman, in 
Brit. FI. 4th edit. — WALES. Denbighshire ; Between Gresford and Wrex- 
ham : ibid. — Common on cultivated and waste land in the islands of Jersey ; 
Guernsey ; and Alderney: C. C. Babington. 
Annual. — Flowers from April to June. 
Root small, tapering, fibrous. Stem from 3 to 15 inches high, 
dichotomously branched, without distinct flowers in the forks, 
grooved, and rough with rigid deflexed bristles. Root-leaves spa- 
thulate ; those of the stem oblong, blunt, entire, or slightly toothed, 
somewhat stem-clasping, their margins clothed with short, rigid, 
projecting bristles. Flowers small, pale-blue, in terminal, com- 
pact heads, with a kind of involucrum at their base, formed of 
numerous, crowded, often divided, oblong bracteas, ciliated and 
membranous at their margins. Capsule (see fig. 5.) oblong, some- 
what 4-angled, 3-lobed, deeply furrowed in front, keeled on the 
back, slightly pubescent, 3-celled, equal, two of the cells (see fig. 7.) 
a little divergent, single-ribbed on each side, and abortive, the 
fertile one transverse, with a longitudinal rib at the back, and ter- 
minated in a short blunt tooth. Seed solitary in the fertile cell, 
oval, smooth. (See The Flora of Shropshire). 
This species, which is a native in France, Germany, Tauria, Sicily, &c. as well 
as in Britain, has the habit of Fddia olitoria, or common Lambs’ Lettuce, to which 
it is closely allied, but from which it may be readily distinguished by its oblong, 
boat-shaped capsule, crowned with a single tooth. It may, like F. olitoria, be 
used in salads through the Winter and early Spring, as a substitute for common 
lettuce, to which it is said to be very little inferior. — The specimen figured was from 
a wall in Rose Lane, Oxford. 
The Natural Order Valeria'nea: consists of small, herbaceous , 
dicotyledonous plants, with opposite leaves, without stipulas. Their 
flowers are either corymbose, panicled, or capitate. The calyx is 
superior, with the limb either toothed or forming a pappus. The 
corolla is monopetalous, tubular, and inserted into the top of the 
germen, with from 3 to 6 lobes, either regular or irregular, and 
sometimes spurred at the base. The stamens vary from 1 to 5, 
they are inserted into the tube of the corolla, and alternate with its 
lobes. The ovary has one perfect cell and often two abortive ones. 
The fruit is dry and indehiscent ; and the seed solitary and pendu- 
lous, with a straight embryo, destitute of albumen. The British 
Genera are Valeriana, t. 90 ; and Fedia, t. 432. — It is said, that 
the seeds of Valeriana rubra (t. 90.) have been used in former 
times for embalming the dead ; and that some thus employed in 
the 12th century, on being removed from the cere-cloth, in the 
19th century, and planted, vegetated. 
