VALERIAN. 
fibres issuing from heads; the stems are cylin- 
drical, grooved, hollow, and 3 or 4 feet high, and 
terminate in flowering branches disposed cross- 
wise ; the leaves are opposite, connate, pinnate, 
bearded at the base below, largest at the bottom 
of the stem, and of decreasing size toward the 
summit; the leaflets are serrated, deeply veined, 
dark green above, and paler below, and the ter- 
minal one is a little larger than the rest; the 
flowers grow in corymbs, and are small, odorous, 
and interspersed with lanceolate, bearded, pale 
bracts, and have a flesh-coloured tubular corol- 
la, with five reflected, obtuse, marginal segments, 
and bloom in June and July; and the capsule 
is crowned with feathery down, and contains one 
oblong-ovate, compressed seed. The root is the 
part used in medicine; and is best in plants 
which grow wild on calcareous soil; and should 
be dug up at some time during the autumnal 
and hybernal repose of the plant. It loses three- 
fourths of its weight by drying. It has a warm, 
bitter, subacrid taste, and a strong, peculiar 
odour, which is highly attractive to cats, but de- 
cidedly unpleasant to most human beings. It con- 
tains gum, starch, extractive, resin, a very thin 
greenish-white volatile oil, and a large propor- 
tion of woody fibre; it surrenders its active mat- 
ter to alcohol, boiling water, and solution of the 
pure alkalies; and it is converted by a small 
dose of nitric acid into resin, and by a larger one 
into oxalic acid. It possesses antispasmodic, 
tonic, and emmenagogue properties; and acts 
well upon the human subject in cases of hyste- 
ria, hemicrania, hypochondriasis, symptomatic 
epilepsy, and other affections connected with 
morbid nervous susceptibility; but it is of little 
use to the farrier, except perhaps as an antispas- 
modic,—and not of much in even that capacity. 
The dicecious or small marsh valerian, V. dioica, 
is a perennial-rooted indigen of marshes and 
moist boggy meadows in many parts of Britain. 
Its stem is from 6 to 12 inches high; its leaves 
are entire; and its flowers are flesh-coloured, 
and have short blunt spurs, and bloom from May 
till July. 
The Pyrenean or heart-leaved valerian, V. py- 
renaica, is a perennial-rooted indigen of woods in 
various parts of Scotland. Its stem is furrowed 
and about 3 feet high; its cauline leaves are 
heart-shaped and serrated,—and the upper ones 
stand on downy foot-stalks; and its flowers are 
flesh-coloured or light rose-coloured, and have 
short spurs, and bloom in May and June. Its 
odour is similar to that of the officinal species. 
The jatamansi valerian, V. catamansi, a na- 
tive of the mountains of Nepaul, is thought by 
some distinguished oriental botanists to be the 
precious spikenard of the ancients. Its root is 
fusiform, and about the thickness of the human 
finger, and bears on its upper part articulations 
_ so covered with dense fibres as to have somewhat 
the appearance of the tails of animals. 
VALERIANELLA. See Lams’s Lerrvces. 
VALUATION OF TIMBER. 
VALERIAN (Grenx.) See Greek VaLerRran, 
VALLESIA. A genus of ornamental, tropi- 
cal, ligneous plants of the dog’s bane family. 
Two species, — both white-flowered, summer- 
blooming, evergreen shrubs of about 3 feet in 
height,—have been introduced to British collec- 
tions from tropical America. 
VALLISNERIA, A genus of curious, floating 
aquatic plants, of the hydrocharis family. The 
spiral species, V. spiralis, is a native of the Rhone 
and of other rivers in Southern France and in 
Italy, and was introduced about 30 yearsago tothe 
botanical collections of Britain. It exhibits, in a 
very manifest and somewhat unique way, one of 
those exquisite contrivances which exist by the 
million in every department of creation, and 
evince the surpassing wisdom and provident care 
and infinite intelligence of the Almighty. It 
carries a large heavy flower, which requires al- 
ways to float on the surface of the water, and 
would speedily perish either if much submerged 
or if left dry or pendulous; and it at the same 
time inhabits streams which are subject to great 
and sudden changes of volume, often alternately 
rising several feet above and falling several feet 
below their ordinary dimensions. The stem of 
the plant, therefore, though slender, is very long 
and of a spiral or cork-screw form, and so highly 
flexible as very easily to extend or contract; and 
it so readily and uniformly lengthens with the 
rise of the water and shortens with its fall, that 
the head or flower constantly and neatly lies on 
the surface. ‘ 
VALLOTA. An ornamental, bulbous-rooted, 
South-African plant, of the amaryllis family. It 
was introduced to the greenhouses of Britain 
about 75 years ago; and it formerly ranked as 
a true amaryllis; but it now constitutes a genus 
of itself with the specific name of purpurea or 
the purple. It has a height of about 20 inches, 
and carries scarlet flowers in May and June; 
but it comprises a smaller variety, V. p. minor, 
of little more than half the height of the normal 
plant. It thrives best in a mixture of peat and 
sand. 
VALONIA. A kind of acorn, used by tanners 
and dyers, and forming a very considerable arti- 
cle of export from the Morea and the Levant. 
It has a bright drab colour, and maintains this 
as long as it is kept dry; but it turns black when 
exposed to moisture, and is then so injured as to 
lose much of its strength and value. The more 
substance it has in its husk orcup it is the more 
valuable. Though a bulky article, it is always 
estimated and bought and sold by weight. In 
1838, between 70 and 80 tons of it were im- 
ported into Britain. 
VALUATION. See Luasz and Trnant-Rieur. 
VALUATION OF TIMBER. As all timber 
is sold by the cube foot, this price of course re- 
gulates the price of all scantling; consequently 
if we calculate how much of any sized scantling 
will make a cube foot, and add the price of saw- 
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