WHAT is the Greek valerian? It appears that nobody knows. The ancients who wrote about plants were not at all troubled with scientific notions. Poor things! they did "allium call their onions and their leeks," for allium was part of their vulgar tongue, or if it was not, it was vulgar enough for those old Romans who were not known as "ancients." The phu or valerian of the Greek writers was a plant of some sort, and Polemonium coeruleum and Polemonium reptans have equally been mistaken for it; but neither of these was the Simon pure.

As regards the plant before us, which may be called a chip from Jacob's ladder, inasmuch as it is the brother or sister plant to Polemonium coeruleum, the claims it has to be regarded as the Greek valerian disappear before the negative truth of its absolute uselessness. Greek botany was not founded on Pentandria monogynia nor on Polemoniaceae. Plants that were found useful in some way or other were cultivated and described, and plants that were not useful were entirely neglected. Even when superstition or poetical fancy ruled, the theory was the same, for a supposed use is equivalent to a real use, so long as the supposition holds good; and many of the plants that were of importance in ancient times owed their distinction to properties perceptible to the eyes of faith alone. Even then it was their usefulness that inspired and justified the study of them; for to this hour utility is as much a matter of faith as of proof, or there would be no fortunes made by the sale of many articles, some of which are truly invaluable, while others "perhaps" are absolutely worthless, or, worse than that, pernicious to health. Well, we can rest in the word faith, and throw utility overboard, and then where are we?

We are then in the presence of the true valerian, the history of which is not only important, but is in its way touching.

Our common valerian offers us in its roots a camphorated and bitter principle. The partiality of cats for the plant is well known; but to mankind the plant is in these parts no administrator of aesthetic pleasures. Now here is a strange truth illustrative of the tendencies of race, climate, and the resultant idiosyncracies, that in these Western parts of the world sweet mild odours, like those of mignonette, wallflower, wild thyme, and woodruff, are universally enjoyed, while cocoa-nut oil and the cheese-flavoured wormwood are universally disliked; but these last are the very odours that give delight in the East, where our fragrant favourites are the least valued.

The valerian of the ancients was the spikenard, Nardostachys jatamansi

This is a member of the valerian family, and a plant of great modern as well as ancient repute, on account of its powerful perfume. Some part of its reputation is, indeed, far from agreeable to Western notions of propriety and good living. But it has higher associations, and such as are dear to thousands. And it comes about in this way. It was a Roman custom for a guest at an entertainment to make a contribution to the feast-it might be of a measure of wine, or a box made of some precious stone and filled with spikenard. Now it was just such a gift that offended Judas when Mary anointed Jesus' feet with ointment so precious that it might have been "sold for three hundred pence and given to the poor." The Greek valerian was doubtless the same as the spikenard of the East, but there was no other nearer home than Crete-the Valeriana phu, or garden valerian, described by Pliny. This has properties similar to the other, but is not so strong, and is perhaps of more direct importance in respect of its medical uses.