In England, valerian is cultivated in many villages[1394] near Chesterfield in Derbyshire, the wild plant which occurs in the neighbourhood not being sufficiently plentiful to supply the demand.
In Vermont, New Hampshire and New York, as well as in Holland, the plant is grown to some extent, but by far the largest supply would appear to be grown in the environs of the German town Cölleda, not far from Leipzig.
Valerian is propagated by separating the young plants which are developed at the end of runners emitted from the rootstock.
The wild plant, according to the situation it inhabits, exhibits several divergent forms. Among eight or more varieties noticed by botanists,[1395] we may especially distinguish α. major with a comparatively tall stem and all the leaves toothed, β. minor (V. angustifolia Tausch) with entire or slightly dentate leaves, and also V. sambucifolia Mikan, having only 4 or 5 pairs of leaflets.
History—The plant which the Greeks and Romans called Φοῦ or Phu, and which Dioscorides and Pliny describe as a sort of wild nard, is usually held to be some species of valerian.[1396]
The word Valeriana is not found in the classical authors. We first meet with it in the 9th or 10th century, at which period and for long afterwards, it was used as synonymous with Phu or Fu.
Thus in the writings of Isaac Judæus[1397] occurs the following:—“Fu id est valeriana, melior rubea et tenuis et quæ venit de Armenia et est diversa in sua complexione....”
Constantinus Africanus[1398]—“Fu, id est valeriana. Naturam habet sicut spica nardi....”
The word Valeriane occurs in the recipes of the Anglo-Saxon leeches written as early as the 11th century.[1399] Valeriana, Amantilla and Fu are used as synonymous in the Alphita, a mediæval vocabulary of the school of Salernum.[1400]
Saladinus[1401] of Ascoli directs (circa a.d. 1450) the collection in the month of August of “radices fu id est valerianæ.”