DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF FLO^^^ERS. 381 



" In Rome, the Vervain was used on various occasions, 

 as, in religious ceremonies, incantations, treaties, etc. 



" Bring your garlands, and with reverence place 

 The Vervain on the altar."— i^e7i Johnson. 



" Virgil mentions it as one of the charms used by an 

 enchantress. 



" Bring running water, bind those altars round 

 With fillets, and with Vervain strow the ground."— Orwu^s' Chorus. 



"Drayton, in the Muse's Elysium, calls it the Holy 

 Vervain, and in the same poem speaks of it as worn by 

 heralds. 



" A wreath of Vervain lieralds wear, 

 Amongst our garlands named. 

 Being sent that dreadful news to bear, 

 Offensive war proclaimed." 



We have a number of indigenous Verbenas or Vervain in 

 New England. V. hastata., which is the common blue Ver- 

 vain, is the only one that has any claim to beauty, a tall and 

 rather showy plant, often found by road sides on low 

 ground; the stem is three or four feet high; leaves oppo- 

 site, rough, sharply serrate, tapering to a point. Spikes 

 numerous, erect, slender. Tlie flowering commences at 

 the base, and is long in reaching to the summit. Flowers 

 close, of a dark-purplish blue. In bloom from July to 

 September ; perennial ; not worth cultivating. 



Garden Verbenas. — The genus was considered a worth- 

 less weedy race, imtil the introduction of Y. Auhletia, 

 chamcBclrifoUa., and Lambertii. 



Verbena chamcedrifolia was introduced into England 

 from Buenos Ayres, by Mr. Hugh Gumming, an ardent 

 lover of nature, about 1825. For a long time this was 

 the only species cultivated ; its form was excellent and its 

 color of the most brilliant scarlet. The introduction of 

 this beautiful and showy flower into this country, about 



