270 THE VERBENA FAMILY. 



first and third of these ring the changes only on red and gokl, but the primrose 

 varies to lilac and other tints, and in the double state scarcely seems to have 

 come from the pale flower it was in the fields. The best polyanthuses are con- 

 sidered to be those which, in conjunction with an exceedingly rich and deep 

 colour in the body of the petals, have them edged with a broad and even line of 

 yellow, and the mouth of the tube closed by the anthers. It is considered a 

 great ornament when the mouth has a kind of raised border surrounding it, and 

 a great blemish if the stigma appears instead of the anthers, florists having their 

 fancies, like all other folks. Equally beautiful with the polyanthus is the auri- 

 cula, distinguished by the shortness of its calyx, and the wliole plant being more 

 or less whitened with a mealy powder. The leaves also are smooth and leathery, 

 instead of puckered. The exquisite velvety surface, and deep royal jDui-ple, crim- 

 son, claret, and copper-colour of the auricula, are almost unequalled among 

 flowers. Long before these open in the garden, there is tlie lovely Chinese prim- 

 rose, or Primula Sineiisis, with a large umbel of lilac or white flowers, double in 

 some varieties, elegantly fringed at the edge in others, and the most curious calyx 

 in nature, being broad and distended at the base, and gradually naiTowed upwards. 

 Several other Primulas are met with now and then, as the P. cortitsoides and the 

 P. farinosa, (E. B. i. 0.) a native of our subalpine pastures. Summer brings 

 dift'erent kinds of pimpernel or AnagalUs, ^vith flowers of brilliant blue; Lysi- 

 machias, with yellow blossoms; and the sweet little Androsdce, but tliis last 

 is verj' rare. Some of the genera have their petals reflexed, or bent back from 

 the rim of the tube towards the peduncle. This is the case in the Cyclamen, two 

 or three species of which are inmates of choice green-houses, and with the "Vir- 

 ginian cowslip" or Dodecatheon, hardy and tolerably common. The latter bears 

 an umbel of lilac blossoms on the summit of a leafless stalk twelve inches high, 

 the flowers on long peduncles, and elegantly pendulous, and resembling a lady's 

 half-opened silken pai'asol, the anthers projecting at the extremity in an 

 elongated golden point. 



LXXVII.— THE VERBENA FAMILY. Verheniicece. 



The Verbenaceae are mostly trees or shrubs, herbaceous plants being 

 quite in the minority. They belong to the tropics of both hemi- 

 spheres, and to the temperate parts of South America, and have a 

 few scattered representatives in Europe, including the solitary British 

 species, called vervain, or Verbena officinalis. (E. B. xi. 767.) Near 

 Manchester we have only those beautiful exotics, the scarlet and 

 purple verbenas of the autumn, and a few green-house shrubs. The 

 best known of the latter is the fragrant-leaved verbena, or Aloysia 

 citriudora, often called the " lemon-tree," from the resemblance of the 

 odour of its foliage to that of ripe lemons. The others comprise 

 species of Lantdna and Clerodendron. The Lantanas are remarkably 

 pretty, though of rather a sprawling habit, with somewhat prickly 



