Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/265

 VALENTINIANS VALERIAN 245 ally attacked on all sides, and the Roman pos- sessions were constantly diminishing. In 451 Aetius defeated Attila near Chalons-sur-Marne ; but in 452 the latter ravaged the north of Italy. Aetius was in 464 killed by Valentinian's own hand, whose feeble mind had long been jeal- ous of the commanding intellect and haughty character of his greatest general. Valentinian himself, the following year, while viewing a spectacle in the Campus Martius, was slain at the instigation of the patrician Petronius Maxi- mus, whose wife the emperor had a short time before violated, and who usurped the throne. Valentinian was the last of the Theodosian line, and his vices were as conspicuous as his mental powers were contemptible. VALENTINIANS. See GNOSTICS, vol. viii., p. 52. VALENTINOIS, Duchess of. See DIANA OF POITIERS. VALERIAN (Lat. valere, to be well), a genus of monopetalous plants, valeriana, which with a few others makes up the family valerianacece. On account of a similarity in the structure of the individual flowers, the family in a sys- tematic arrangement stands near composite, though they are not, as in that order, collect- ed into a head, but in a corymb or cyme. In valerian the inferior ovary has one fertile one- ovulad cell, and two empty or abortive ones ; the adherent calyx has its limb developed as several plumose bristles, which are rolled in- ward in flower, but as the fruit matures ex- pand as a pappus ; the tube of the corolla is usually gibbous, or swollen at one side near the base, and the limb has five nearly regular lobes; stamens three. There are about 150 species, mostly perennial herbs, with thick- ened roots, which are strong-smelling when dry, entire or divided leaves, and white or rose-colored flowers ; they are widely distrib- uted, but most abundant in mountainous re- gions ; three are natives of the northern states, but rather rare and local. The most impor- tant of these is the edible valerian ( V. edulis), so called because its large spindle-shaped root, sometimes a foot long, is roasted and eaten by the western Indians ; its leaves are fringed- ciliate, and its stem, 1 to 4 ft. high, bears an interrupted panicle of whitish flowers. V. pau- ciflora is found from Pennsylvania and Ohio southward, while the first named and V. syl- vestris, our third native species, are northern and western. The best known of all the spe- cies is V. officinalis, the root of which is the medicinal valerian, and the plant is quite com- mon in gardens, where it is cultivated for the fragrance of its flowers ; the leaves have from 11 to 21 oblong, cut-toothed, somewhat downy leaflets ; the stem, 2 to 3 ft. high, bears a broad, terminal corymb of small white flowers, often tinged with pink, with an odor like that of heli- otrope, on which account it is often called gar- den heliotrope. A closely related species, with less divided leaves, V. phu, is also cultivated. The medicinal species is found all over Europe, from Spain to Iceland, and in northern Asia, and is cultivated in England and sparingly in this country for its roots ; it has an erect root- stock, to which are attached numerous rootlets 3 to 4 in. long ; the rootstock is usually cut to facilitate drying. When freshly dug the root has no characteristic odor, but when dry it has a peculiar terebinthine or camphorous odor, and a bitterish aromatic taste. The chemical composition of the root is somewhat complex ; when fresh it gives from ^ to 2 per cent, of volatile oil ; the dried root yields less oil, with valerianic acid, which results from the oxida- tion of the oil during the drying, and a resi- nous substance ; the changes which take place in the root, and the different products, have not been well studied. Valerian has long been used in medicine, and it is supposed that the pTiu mentioned by Dioscorides and other an- cient writers was this plant. In the 16th cen- Valerian (Valeriana officinalis). tury it was used in England to flavor soups and pottages, and the roots, though the odor is now disagreeable to most persons, were placed among clothes as a perfume. Cats are exceed- ingly fond of the odor; a piece of the root seems to intoxicate them. Valerian belongs to that class of nervous stimulants known as antispasmodics, and in hysteria and other affec- tions of women it is used in both domestic and regular practice ; it is administered in the form of infusion, tincture, and fluid extract. The valerian family includes centrantftus, of which several species are cultivated as ornamental plants, and fedia, of which F. olitoria is cul- tivated, and is known as corn salad. VALERIAN (PUBLIUS LICINICS VALEEIANUS), a Roman emperor, who reigned from A. D. 253 to 260. He was descended from a noLle Roman family, rose to the highest honors cf the state, and was fixed upon by the emperor Decius, who in 251 had determined to revive the censorship, as the fittest person for that post; but he was saved from discharging its