CHAP. XL] VERBENAS. 309 



and they unite its brilliant colour with the up- 

 right habit of V. Tweedieana. V. incisa has 

 pale pink flowers, and an upright habit of 

 growth. It is tolerably hardy, and grows 

 freelv, but its flowers have a faded look. V. 

 Arraniana has an upright habit of growth, and 

 purple flowers, with very dark bluish-green 

 leaves. It is very tender, and very apt to be 

 attacked by a kind of aphis and other insects. 

 V. pulche-lla, V. Aubletia, V. Lamberti, and V. 

 Sabini are prostrate tufted half-herbaceous 

 kinds, and all hardv. V. Neillii has lilac 

 flowers, and rather an upright habit of growth, - 

 and V. teucrioides, which has been much more 

 praised than it deserves, is a coarse-growing 

 plant, with a lono; spike of white flowers, which 

 turn pinkish in dying off. There are also V. 

 sulphurea, a yellowish kind; V. venosa, a very 

 strong-growing species, with purple flowers; 

 and many other species, with innumerable hy- 

 brids and varieties that are increasing every 

 dav. All the verbenas require to be grown in 

 sand and peat, or heath-mould, and to be kept 

 moderatelv watered : they all strike readily 

 from cuttings or layers ; and, indeed, when 

 pgo-ored down, even without any slitting or 

 twisting, most of the shrubby kinds will throw 

 out roots at every joint. When worm-casts 

 are observed on the surface of the earth in the 

 pot, as will very often be the case, the plant 

 mav be turned out with its ball of earth entire, 

 and the worms, which will always be found on 

 the outside of the ball, may be picked off. 

 Worms do considerable injury to plants, espe- 

 cially such as are in pots, by rupturing the 



