VERBENA 247 



Verbe'na — continued. 



perennial species of this family. They are usually 

 treated as half-hardy annuals and raised each year 

 from seed, unless particular colours are required to 

 be increased, when cuttings are taken and kept 

 under glass through the winter. But they come 

 fairly true when sown, and seedlings are less liable 

 to disease and mildew (to which they are very 

 subject) than those taken from cuttings. At the 

 time of planting out the little branches should be 

 pegged down close to the gromid. Few plants 

 stand heavy storms of rain better than Verbenas, 

 and this is a consideration, as the beds are rarely 

 spoilt from this cause. The colours of the clustered 

 flowers range from pure white to pale pink, rose, 

 carmine, and purple, with often different shades in 

 the centres, though yellow is a colour which is not 

 represented by this group. The profusion of 

 blooms is astonishing and continues all the 

 autumn. Nurserymen's catalogues give fancy 

 names to the different varieties, but it is best to 

 mention the colours wanted on ordering seed, or to 

 get a mixed assortment. 



The seeds should be sown tV in. deep at the 

 end of January or in February in pans of light soil, 

 loam, leaf-mould, and sand, placed in a temp, of 60°. 

 The seedlings should be transplanted when two or 

 three leaves have formed into 2J-in, pots, and soon 

 after placed close to the glass in a slightly lower 

 temperature. When fairly established they should 

 be potted up singly into large pots. In May or 



