VALERIAN. 
13 ] 
VALERIAN. 
AN ACCOMMODATING DISPOSITION. 
The Red Valerian grows naturally on the 
rocks of the Alps, and, from the facility with 
which it propagates itself in the garden or on 
old walls, it is made the emblem of an accom¬ 
modating disposition. If not indigenous in this 
country, it is conjectured to have been intro¬ 
duced very early, on account of the situations 
where it is found growing, which are generally 
the old walls of colleges, or the ruins of monastic 
buildings. 
From its predilection for such situations, 
this plant no doubt derived its old English name 
of Setewale. Chaucer mentions it by this appella¬ 
tion, so long ago as the time of Edward III. 
Ther springen herbis grete and smale, 
The Licoris and the Setewale; 
and Dr. Turner, who compiled his Herbal about 
the middle of the sixteenth century, calls it, 
Setwall. 
