VERVAIN FAMILY 377 



beautiful plant. The root is fibrous, and has a very loose hold on 

 the soft ground in which it grows. The radical leaves are oblong, 

 pale green, and of a peculiar, parchment-like, frosted appearance. 

 The -flowers are f in. long, violet, and handsome, growing in a 

 nodding manner on a peduncle 3 — 4 in. long, with very unequal 

 corolla-lobes and a short, tapering spur. — Bogs, heaths, and wet 

 rocks, principally in the north. — Fl. May — July. Perennial. 



2. P. grandifldra (Large-flowered Butterwort). — A larger and 

 yet more beautiful plant, with broader leaves, flowers i in. long, 

 with a longer and often notched spur. — Bogs in co. Cork and 

 Kerry. — Fl. May — July. Perennial. 



3. P. alpina (Alpine Butterwort). — Smaller than P. vulgaris, 

 with yellowish-white flowers, \ in. long, on short, smooth peduncles, 

 and with a very short, conical spur. — Bogs in Ross and Skye. — 

 Fl. May, June. Perennial. 



4. P. lusitdnica (Pale Butterwort). — The smallest British 

 species, with greenish-white, veined leaves, downy peduncle, and 

 pale lilac flowers ^ in. long, with a yellowish throat, nearly equal 

 corolla-lobes, and blunt, cylindrical spur, curved downwards. — 

 Bogs in the south-west of England and the west of Scotland and 

 Ireland. — Fl. June — September. Perennial. 



Ord. LVIII. Verbenace.^.. — Vervain Family 



A considerable, but mainly tropical Order, closely allied to the 

 LabidtcB, comprising trees, shrubs, and herbs, with opposite, 

 exstipulate leaves, and perfect, monosymmetric, bracteate flowers ; 

 calyx inferior, tubular, imbricate, persistent; corolla hypogynous, 

 with a long tube, usually 2-lipped, imbricate ; stamens didynamous, 

 epipetalous, or rarely 2 only ; ovary 2 or 4-chambered ; style i ; 

 5^zg;wa sometimes 2-cleft; seeds i or 2 in each chamber. Many 

 of them are aromatic and fragrant, such as Aloysia citriodora, 

 formerly called Verbena triphylla, the Lemon-plant of gardens, 

 well known for the delicious fragrance of its rough, lanceolate 

 leaves. Many species of Verbena from America are cultivated for 

 their brilliantly coloured flowers ; and, though it is now little 

 thought of, great virtues were in ancient times attributed to the 

 one British representative of the Order, the common Vervain, 

 insomuch that it was accounted a holy plant, and is said to have 

 been used to sweep the tables and altars of the gods. By far the 

 most valuable plant in the Order is the Teak {Tectona grdndis), a 

 native of India and Burma. The trunk of this tree sometimes 

 attains the height of two hundred feet, and its leaves are twenty 



