82 VERBENA AUBLETIA. AUBLET's VERBENA. 



manifold. Thus Virgil in his eighth Eclogue, as translated by 

 Dryden, mentions the name in connection with a kind of love- 

 spell, or conjuration: — 



" Bring running water, bind those altars round 

 With fillets, and with Vervain strew the trround ; 

 Make fat with frankincense the sacred fires, 

 To re-inflame my Daphnis with desires." 



At the festivals of Venus Victrix, at which myrtle, bay, and 

 similar aromatic herbs were used to make wreaths for the con- 

 queror, the Verbena was also occasionally used ; and its sacred 

 character was likewise recognized in the practice of sending a 

 small portion of the herb as a New Year's present to friends. 



The English name, Vervain, is said to be from the old Celtic 

 fcrfacn, the meaning of which also refers to the cleansing or 

 removing power attributed to the plant by the Greeks. 



Our present species, Verbena Aubletia, received its specific 

 name in honor of Jean Baptiste Fusee Aublet, a botanist of 

 considerable note, born at Salon, in Provence, in the year 1723. 

 Aublet collected especially in the Mauritius, and published a his- 

 tory of the plants of French Guinea in 1775. Three years after 

 this date he died in Paris. It is a curious fact that quite a number 

 of botanists sought to honor Aublet by naming a genus after 

 him, and that all these attempts failed. Ga?rtner's Aubletia 

 proved to be a Souneralia, a myrtaceous plant ; Louvier's 

 Aubletia is Paliuj'us, the Christ's Thorn; that of Richard is 

 Alojmiej'ia, a genus of the Rue Family ; and that of Schi-eber 

 was found to belong to Apeiba, a genus established by Aublet 

 himself. Even the plant to which this article is devoted was 

 made into a separate genus by Jacquin, but had to be remanded 

 to Verbena. It is rare that so many attempts to honor a botanist 

 have come to naught. These repeated endeavors show the 

 esteem in which Aublet was held by his colaborers, and it is at 

 least a consolation to know that his name is likely to endure for 

 a long time in the specific appellation of our plant; for the 



