Wild Valerian.
Valeriana sylvestris.
Also see: Garden Valerian - Wild Valerian.
A tall and handsome plant, frequent in our woods and upon heaths, not unlike the garden valerian in its form and manner of growth, and of greater virtues. It is a yard high. The stalks are round, striated, upright, hollow, and of a pale green. The leaves are large end beautiful; they are each composed of several pairs of smaller set on a common rib, and with an odd one at the end. These are long, narrow, dentated at the edges, of a faint green colour, and a little hairy. The flowers stand in large tufts like umbels at the tops of the stalks, and are small and white with a blush of reddish. The root is of a whitish colour, and is composed of a great many thick fibres. It is of a very strong and disagreeable smell.
The root is used; it is best dried and given in powder, or in infusion. It is an excellent medicine in nervous disorders. It is said that it will cure the falling sickness, but its good effects against head-achs, low-spiritedness, and tremblings of the limbs, are well known.
