GAMOPETAL.E 173 



Ireland, though it is local there, Vervain is not known 

 in Scotland. It occurs in the Channel Islands. 

 It appears to be most common in the south of 

 England. 



As a rule the habitat of Vervain is dry waste 

 places, near villages or houses. It also grows by 

 the roadside, and I have seen it in Norfolk on walls. 



Erect in habit, the plant is smooth or downy. 

 The stem is wiry, rigid, with long, spreading branches 

 in the upper part solitary, four-angled, from a woody 

 rootstock. The lower leaves are inversely ovate, 

 oblong, pinnatifid, stalked, sometimes with coarse 

 teeth, with blunt or acute lobes. The leaves are 

 opposite. The upper leaves are few, stalkless, lance- 

 shaped, narrower. 



Arranged in a long, dense, slender spike, which 

 lengthens in fruit, the flowers are pale purple and 

 small, distant. As the panicled spike lengthens the 

 lower flowers become more distant. The bracts are 

 ovate, acute, about half as long as the calyx, which in 

 turn is half as long as the tube of the corolla. There 

 are four stamens. The nutlets are blunt, granulate. 



In height Vervain is 1-2 ft., and it flowers late 

 in August and September. It is a herbaceous 

 perennial. 



Honey is secreted at the base of the ovary. A 

 ring of hairs serves to protect it, as does the form 

 of the corolla. The lower part of the tube, which is 

 3-4 mm. long, is turned upwards and the upper out- 

 wards. This serves also to protect the stigma and 



