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VERBENA OFFICINALIS. . ORD: XX. Personate. — 365 
Sp. Ch. V. tetrandra; spicis filiformibus paniculatis, foliis multifido-- 
laciniatis, caule solitario. 
ROOT perennial, tapering, fibrous, of a yellowish colour. Stalks. 
above a foot high, erect, tapering, obtusely quadrangular, beset 
with short prickles: the branches are opposite, slender, and simple: 
Leaves opposite, sessile, pinnatifid, or deeply and irregularly 
indented. Flowers: numerous, purplish, placed in long slender 
-spikes.. Calyx-small, tubular, five-toothed, angular, permanent. 
Corolla monopetalous, unequal: tube cylindrical, towards the top 
bent inward;: limb expanding, divided into five segments, which 
are rounded, and nearly equal. Filaments extremely short: an- 
there commonly four, two of which are placed above. the others. 
Germen’ square:. style thread-shaped, terminated by an obtuse 
stigma. Seeds usually four, oblong, obtuse, on the inside flattish, 
and white, and on the ontside. brown, convex, grooved, and re- 
ticulated. 
Mr. Curtis observes that’ “ the Vervain may be considered as a: 
kind of domestic plant, not confined to any particular soil, “but 
growing by the road sides, pretty universally at the entrance into: 
towns and villages;” and Miller declares that it is never found- 
more than a quarter of a:mile from a house: hence it-has been: 
also called Simpler’s Joy. 
Ancient writers have distinguished this plant by the names: 
Verbena, Verbenaca, and Peristerium.* It is destitute of odour, 
and to the taste manifests-but a slight degree of bitterness and. 
astringency. 
In former times the Verbena seems to have been held sacred, and 
was employed in celebrating the sacrificial rites;* and with a view. 
* Vide Phin. J. 25. ¢. 9. 
> It appears to be the lega Sora, or aeeisegewve of Dioscorides. Alston says, . 
Verbena quasi herbena, because all herbs used in sacred rites were so called.. 
Hence Virgil, Verbenasque adole pingues & masculathura. Eel. viii. v.65. And: 
Terence in Andria, Ex ara hac sume Verbenas tibi. But Virgil also uses the 
word to denote a particular plant. Vide Georg. iv. 13), 
No. 31. vot. 3.. Az 
