K 



216 FLOWERS OF FIELD, HILL, AND SWAMP 



The plant varies from a foot to a foot and a half high, is dififusely 

 branching, with leaves rather far apart. Its root may be parasitic, 

 and the plant turns black in drying. 



Range, near the coast. Middle and Southern States. 



84. White Vervain 



Verbena urticaefblia. — Family, Vervain. Color, white. 

 Leaves, opposite, petioled, toothed, oval, acute. Time, July, 

 August. 



Calyx, unevenly 5-toothed. Corolla, 5-toothed, the lobes 

 spreading. Stamens, in 2 pairs, the upper frequently imper- 

 fect. Fruit, splitting into 4 nutlets. Flowers, in spikes, rather 

 loose, on stems 3 to 5 feet tall. Quite common, sometimes 

 growing with the next. 



85. Blue Vervain 



V. hastata is a taller plant, with bluish -purple blossoms 

 in a compact spike. It would be pretty were the flowers all 

 to come out at once ; but buds above, seeds belo\v, a small 

 circle of flowers between, is its parsimonious habit. Leaves 

 pointed, the lower often lobed, and with halberd- shaped 

 bases. 



The vervain (verbena) seems to have been connected with 

 magic, acting as a charm against witches. Says Mr. Knight, in 

 his biography of Shakespeare : 



" Some of the children said that a horseshoe over the door, and 

 vervain and dill, would preserve them, as they had been told, from 

 the devices of sorcery." 



It was in the times of Vergil thought to be a charm to recover 

 lost love : 



" Effer aquam, et molli cinge haec altaria vitta, 

 Verbenasque adole pingues et mascula tura. 

 Coniugis ut magicis sanos avertere sacris 

 Experiar sensus." 



Vekgil, Eclogue VIII., lines 64-7. 



