Spec. Plant. Willd. i. 175.

Cl. 3. Ord. 1. Triandria Monogynia. Nat. ord. Valerianeae.

G. 75. Corolla monopetalous, gibbous on one side of the base, superior. Seed one. * valerians, with a single downy seed. Species 6. V. sylvestris. Officinal, or great Wild Valerian. Med.

Bot. 3d edit. 77. t. 32. Smith, Flora Brit. 38. Officinal. Valeriana, Lond. Valerianae officinalis radix,

Edin. Dub. Wild Valerian root.

Syn. Valeriane (F.), Wilde Baldrianwurzel (G.), Wilde Valeriaan (Dutch), Wandelrot (Swed.), Kettull gunnung (Jav.), Valeriana Silvestre (I.), Valerian officinal (S.), Balder an (Russ.), Baldrian (Danish), Kozlki (Pol.).

This species of valerian is an indigenous, perennial plant, flowering in June. There are two varieties of it; one growing in woods and marshy ground, the other on high pastures and heaths; and the sensible qualities of the second are considerably greater than those of the first. It has been often regarded as the φov of Dioscorides: but Sibthorp has proved this opinion to be erroneous, and has described the real valerian of the ancients as a distinct species, under the name of Valeriana Dioscoridis.1 The roots of valerian are long and slender fibres issuing from heads: the stems rise three or four feet in height; are round, grooving, hollow, and terminated with flowering branches disposed crosswise. The leaves are larger at the base of the stem, decreasing in size towards the summit; opposite, connate, and bearded at the base below; pinnate, with a terminal leaflet a little larger than the rest; all the leaflets deeply veined and serrated, of a dark-green colour on the upper surface, and paler underneath.

The flowers are small, in corymbs, odorous, and interspersed with lanceolate, connate, bearded, waved, pale bractes; the calyx is a slight margin at the top of the germen: the corolla tubular, white with a shade of pink, divided at the margin into five reflected, obtuse segments: the filaments are spreading with the corolla, and support round, yellowish, anthers: the style is shorter, with a trifid stigma; and the capsule is crowned with a feathery pappus, purplish at the base, and contains one oblong, ovate, compressed seed.

1 A vile, stimulant nostrum, consisting,according to Dr. Paris (Pharmacologia), of equal parts of Balsam of Tolu, and the compound tincture of benzoin, with double the quantity of rectified spirits of wine, is sold under the name of Essence of Coltsfoot, as a remedy for coughs. 2 Mat. Med. ii. 160.

The roots should be dug up in autumn when the leaves decay, or in spring before they expand; and be preserved in a dry place. Those which grow wild on a calcareous soil are preferable to those that are cultivated. They lose three fourths of their weight by drying. Cats are allured and delighted with the odour.2

Qualities.-Valerian root has a strong, peculiar, unpleasant odour, and a warm, bitter, subacrid taste. Trommsdorff has chemically examined it. Its virtues appear to depend on a very liquid greenish-white-coloured volatile oil, which from its odour and taste seems to contain much camphor. Twenty-two pounds of the dried root should yield eighteen and a half drachms of oil.3 Its specific gravity at 77° Fahr. is 0.9340; when exposed to light it becomes yellow; a small portion of nitric acid converts it into resin, and a larger dose into oxalic acid. The expressed juice of the root contains starch, extractive, and gum; while the roots deprived of this juice yield a portion of black-coloured resin, but consist chiefly of woody fibre.1 The active matter of valerian root is extracted by boiling water, alcohol, and solutions of the pure alkalies.

1 Sibthorp, Flora Graeca, p. 24. t. 33. Dr. Smith, the learned editor of Sib-thorp's work, says, "Haec est vere φov Dioscoridis, a nemine botanicorum re-centiorum ante Sibthorp detecta. Willdenow's 7th species, V. phu, which was supposed to be the plant of Dioscorides, does not accord with his description, whereas that of Sibthorp corresponds with it in every particular.

2 Mr. Lambert has endeavoured to prove, that the Valeriana iatamansi, a Ne-palese alpine plant, is identical with the spikenard of the ancients. This root is fusiform, about the thickness of the human finger, and bearing on the upper part articulations covered with dense fibres, which give them somewhat of the appearance of the tails of animals. Vide Illustrations of the Genus Cinchona, etc, 4to. Lond. 1821. 177.

3 Central. Blatt. June, 1836.

Medical properties and uses. - Valerian root is antispasmodic, tonic, and emmenagogue. It is advantageously employed in hysteria, symptomatic epilepsy, hemicrania, and other affections depending on a morbid susceptibility of the nervous system. We have also found it exceedingly serviceable in hypochondriasis; and it is regarded as a useful adjunct to cinchona in intermittents. It may be exhibited in substance combined with a small portion of mace or cinnamon; or in the forms of infusion or tincture. The extract is a bad form of preparation. The dose of the powdered root may be from gr. x. to 3 j., given three or four times a day.

Officinal preparations. - Extractum Valerianvae, D. Infusum Valeriana, D. Tinctura Valeriana, L. D. Tinctura Valeriana composita, L. E. D.