6o 
Dicotyledons with Gamopetalous Flowers . 
Natural Order 
VALERI AN ACE^E. Tab. 48. 
Diagnosis.— Herbs with opposite exstipulate leaves. Flowers cymose. 
Corolla epigynous. Stamens epipetalous, usually fewer than corolla-lobes. 
Seed solitary, pendulous, exalbuminous. 
Distribution.— A small Natural Order, widely dispersed, especially in the cooler regions of both 
Hemispheres. Many peculiar species occur at high elevations on the South American Andes. 
Number of British Genera, 2; Species, 5. 
Calyx adherent, the limb reduced to minute teeth or obsolete; in Valerian ( Valeriana) closely rolled up in 
flower, expanding in fruit as a feathery plume (pappus.) 
Corolla with a narrow spur at the base of the tube in Red Valerian ( Centranthus ;) with a lateral gibbosity 
in Valerian. 
Stamens 3 in Valerian, 1 in Red Valerian. 
OVARY inferior, i-celled, with more or less distinct indication of 2 suppressed cells. 
USES, &c.—Lamb’s Lettuce ( Valerianella Olitoria) is grown for salad. The root of many of the perennial 
Valerianaceae is stimulant and usually possesses a peculiar odour, especially developed in Spikenard ( Nardostachys 
Jatamansi), a North Indian species, which has been valued from antiquity as a perfume. 
