VERBENA. The vervain genus gives its name to the natural order (Verbenaceae) of which it is a member. The species are herbaceous or somewhat shrubby, erect or procumbent, with opposite or whorled leaves, generally deeply cut. The sessile flowers originate in the axils of bracts, and are aggregated into close spikes. Each flower has a tubular, ribbed calyx, a more or less irregular tubular two-lipped corolla, with two or four (didynamous) stamens springing from the centre of the corolla tube. The anthers are two-celled, with or without a gland-like appendage at the apex. The ovary is entire or four-lobed, and always four-celled, with a single ovule in each cell; the two styles are free at the apex only, being elsewhere undivided. The fruit consists of four hard nuts within the persistent calyx. There are about eighty species known, mostly natives of tropical and subtropical America. V. officinalis, according to Bentham, is also widely dispersed in the temperate and warmer regions of the eastern hemisphere. V. bonariensis occurs in Africa and in Asia, while V. supina is indigenous only in the Mediterranean and Canarian regions. The vervein or vervain, V. officinalis, a common wild plant on limestone soils in England, was the object of much superstitious veneration on the part of our pagan ancestors, who attributed marvellous properties to it, provided it were gathered in a particular manner and with much complex ceremonial. The plant is now but lightly esteemed, and its medicinal virtues, if it have any, are entirely ignored. The garden verbenas, once so popular for “bedding out,” are derivatives from various South-American species, such as V. teucrioides, a native of southern Brazil, and V. chamaedrifolia from Uruguay. The range of colours extends from pure white to ...