Lonicera caprifolium Linnaeus
goat-leaf honeysuckle
central and southern Europe, Asia Minor; introduced into western
Europe, North America
In parts of southern Devon the blossoms of the non-native Lonicera capri-
folium have been drunk as an infusion for asthma,^88 evidently as an alterna-
tive to those ofL. periclymenum.But they are more likely to have been
obtained from gardens than from naturalised bushes.
Valerianaceae
Valeriana officinalis Linnaeus
valerian
most of Europe, temperate Asia; introduced into North America
Though the roots of the common valerian,Valeriana officinalis,have been
valued as the source of a nerve relaxant since ancient times and an extract has
become fashionable in alternative medicine as a sedative, no undoubted folk
records of the plant’s use for that purpose have been traced. Nor does William
Withering’s^89 recommendation of it as a laxative find any reflection in them
either—other than for cows in the Hebrides.^90 Similarly, its reputation today
of reducing the ill effects of alcohol appears to have no parallel in folk
medicine.
As a folk herb,Valeriana officinalis has principally fulfilled two quite other
functions in the British Isles: as yet another tonic to stimulate and cleanse
the system (Suffolk,^91 Gloucestershire^92 ) and to staunch bleeding from
wounds and other cuts (Sussex^93 ) or heal a festering finger (Wiltshire,^94
Gloucestershire^95 ). In Wiltshire the marsh valerian,V.dioica Linnaeus, has
also been recorded as bearing the name cut-finger-leaf, but doubtless the two
species have passed as one and the same in the eyes of country people. A slight
variant of that name borne in Hampshire^96 by a plant whose leaves have been
used there for binding wounds has been attributed, however, rightly or
wrongly, to the garden valerian or ‘setwall’,V.pyrenaica Linnaeus. That attri-
bution may have been influenced by the passage John Gerard has about ‘set-
wall’ in his Herball^97 :
The dry roote... is put into counterpoisons and medicines preserva-
tive against the pestilence ...;whereupon it hath beene had (and is to
this day among the poore people of our northerne parts) in such ven-
eration among them, that no brothes, pottage, or physicall meates are274 Lonicera caprifolium