










124 LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS. 
VALERIAN. 
AN ACCOMMODATING DISPOSITION. 
Tue 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 monas- 
tic buildings. 
From its predilection for such situations, 
this plant no doubt derived its old English 
name of Setewale. Chaucer mentions it by 
this appellation so long ago as the time of 
Edward III. : 
Ther springen herbis grete and smale, 
The Licoris and Setewale ; 
and Dr. Turner, who compiled his Herbal about 
the middle of the sixteenth century, calls it 
Setwall. 



