VE R 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



VER 



735 



seeds in this climate, may be increased by cuttings during 

 the summer months, in pots of good mould, placing them in 

 the bark- bed of the stove, where they may be preserved 

 many years. 



2. Verbena Indica ; Indian Vervain. Two-stamined : 

 spikes very long, fleshy, naked ; leaves lanceolate-ovate, 

 obliquely toothed ; stem even. This very much resembles 

 the next species, from which it is distinguished by Its stem 

 and branches being smooth. It flowers in August. Native 

 of Ceylon. 



3. Verbena Jamaicensis ; Jamaica Vervain. Two-stamined : 

 spikes very long, fleshy, naked ; leaves spathulate-ovate, ser- 

 rate; stem rough-haired. The flowers blow in succession, be- 

 ginning at the bottom, very few together, violet-coloured, with 

 the throat long and slender, incurved ; tube white. Native 

 of Jamaica, Barbadoes, and other West India islands, where 

 this valuable, though common plant, is herbaceous, and when 

 once established spreads fast. Dr. Barham informs us, that 

 the juice alone, or with Contrayerva, infused in wine, is an 

 excellent remedy against dropsies. The bruised leaves, 

 with wheat-flour, applied as a cataplasm, are useful in swell- 

 ings of the spleen, a disease common in the West Indies, 

 and to discuss hard tumours at their commencement. It is 

 given, as a cooling cathartic and anthelminthic, to children, 

 in doses of one or two table-spoonfuls of the expressed juice. 

 A decoction of the plant with spikenard, is given in dropsies ; 

 and a table-spoonful of the juice, four successive mornings, 

 is considered by the negroes, with whom Vervain is a* fa- 

 vourite remedy, as an effectual deobstruent and emmena- 

 gogue. The expressed juice with water, is also very good 

 for sore, watery, and inflamed eyes. Vervain Tea is like- 

 wise frequently drank as a febrifuge and corroborant. 



4. Verbena Mutabilis ; Changeable Vervain. Two-sta- 

 mined : spikes very long, fleshy, naked ; leaves ovate, pro- 

 duced at the base, toothed, rugged, tomentose beneath ; 

 stem shrubby. The flowers are at first extremely deep scar- 

 let, and afterwards rose or flesh coloured. Native of South 

 America. 



5. Verbena Aristata; Awn-bracted Vervain. Two-stamined: 

 leaves oblong, serrate ; spikes elongated ; bractes ovate, acu- 

 minate, longer than the seed ; stem shrubby. This is a 

 shrub, with four-cornered branches of a somewhat ash- 

 coloured purple colour. Native of South America. 



6. Verbena Prismatica; Prism-caliced Vervain. Two- 

 stamined : spikes loose ; calices alternate, prismatic, trun- 

 cate, awned ; leaves ovate, obtuse. This is a shrub, growing 

 in the Caribbee Islands : the stem and branches are round, 

 smooth, and armed with straight scattered black spines; the 

 racemes are lax, terminal, and axillary, about half a foot 

 long, with the proper footstalks about two inches lono-, 

 spreading, and at the tips collecting the flowers, which are 

 of a pale yellow, into a roundish head : they are sessile, and 

 of a fragrant smell. Annual. Native of Jamaica. 



7. Verbena Mexicana ; Mexican Vervain. Two-stamined : 

 leaves ovate, acute, harsh ; spikes loose ; calices of the fruit 

 reflexed, rounded, twin, hispid. Stalk shrubby, two or three 

 feet high, and divided into several branches, which are ter- 

 minated by slender loose spikes of small pale purple flowers, 

 the calices of which afterwards become swelled and almost 

 globular; they are reflexed, and set with stinging hairs. The 

 leaves and stem, and especially the seeds, are so hispid as 

 to adhere obstinately to the fingers and clothes. It flowers 

 late, but in good years the seeds ripen in England. Native 

 of Mexico. 



8. Verbena Stoechadifolia ; Oval-spiked Vervain. Two- 

 stamined : spikes ovate; leaves lanceolate, serrate, plaited; 



VOL. it. 127. 



stem shrubby. The stem is woody, spreading five or six 

 feet ; flowers on long naked stalks, from the axils, blue, 

 and collected in oval heads : they appear late in autumn, 

 and unless the season prove warm, the seeds rarely ripen in 

 England, but the plants may be kept two or three years in a 

 warm stove. r-Native of Jamaica and America. 

 ** Four-stamined. 



9. Verbena Globiflora ; Globe-flowered Vervain. Four- 

 stamined : spikes in globular heads ; leaves lanceolate, cre- 

 nate, wrinkled, Tugged ; stem shrubby, erect, the height of 

 a man ; branches erect, round like the stem ; flowers sessile, 

 one to each bracte, very close, compressed, white. Native 

 of South America. 



10. Verbena Javanica; Java Vervain. Four-stamined: 

 spikes cylindrical ; leaves rhomb-ovate, crenate ; stem erect ; 

 seeds united into a globe. Native of Java. 



11. Verbena Nodiflora ; Creeping Vervain. Four-sta- 

 mined : spikes dense, imbricated, ovate; leaves wedge-shap- 

 ed, toothed ; stern creeping. Roots simple, filiform ; stem 

 herbaceous, trailing to a great extent; flowers light purple, 

 with dark-red bractes. Native of the four continents : found 

 near Naples, and in the island of Sicily; in the island of 

 Ceylon; near Cassa in Barbary ; in Virginia, North Ame- 

 rica; in some of the West India islands; and in the isle of 

 Tanna, South Seas. 



12. Verbena Bonariensis ; Cluster-flowered Vervain. Four- 

 stamined : spikes in bundles ; leaves lanceolate, embracing. 

 Stem about six feet high, square, rough, clothed with long, 

 harsh, coarsely serrated leaves; flowers blue, appearing late 

 in summer, and not often succeeded by good seeds in Eng- 

 land. Native of Buenos Ayres. 



13. Verbena Hastata ; Halberd-leaved Vervain. Four- 

 stamined : spikes long, acuminate; leaves hastate. This 

 sends up many four-cornered furrowed stalks from the root, 

 which rise five or six feet high. Native of Canada in North 

 America. This, and the seventeenth species, may be propa- 

 gated by seeds sown in autumn, or by parting their roots at 

 the same season. They are hardy enough to thrive in the 

 open air, and love a soft loamy soil. 



14. Verbena Triphylla; Three-leaved Vervain. Four-sta- 

 mined, panicled: leaves in threes; stem shrubby. Branches 

 spreading very much, rugged ; flowers small, pale lilac, in 

 an erect terminating panicle, composed of spiked, striated, 

 villose bractes, with a few leaves intermixed at bottom. The 

 leaves have the flavour of lemon, and are useful in fevers, 

 taken as tea, like Balm, Hyssop, &c. Native of South Ame- 

 rica. This elegant shrub, so delightful for its fragrance, 

 may easily be increased by cuttings, and requires only the 

 protection of a good green-house or glass-case. Mr. Curtis 

 suggests, that in some parts of our island, especially near 

 the sea, it would in all probability succeed very well in the 

 open border. 



15. Verbena Lappulacea; Burry Vervain. Four-stamined: 

 fruiting calices roundish, inflated ; seeds echinate. Stem her- 

 baceous, a foot or two high, erect, somewhat branched, brittle, 

 quadrangular, more contracted at the base of the petioles, 

 striated, pubescent; racemes long, loose, composed of scat- 

 tered flowers, directed one way, of a very pale blue colour, 

 on short pedicels, having very minute bractes under them. 

 Native of the West Indies; where it is reputed to be a fine 

 vulnerary subastringent, and is commonly applied to bleed- 

 ing wounds in men or cattle, especially in Jamaica, where it 

 is esteemed to be so powerful a styptic as to stop the heemor- 

 rhage, even when some of the more considerable arteries are 

 cut; and it may be esteemed an excellent application in all 

 manner of sores, where the habit is relaxed. 



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