738 



VER 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



VER 



ing against, and the damage caused by, vermin and game, 

 on a farm of two hundred acres, half arable and half grass, 

 without sheep-walks, amounts to fifty pounds in the year, 

 which is nearly five shillings each acre upon the whole, 

 which sum it is supposed averages the cultivated corn and 

 grass land farms of Great Britain, and when calculated upon 

 forty millions of acres, supposed to be in cultivation, will 

 amount to ten millions of money per year. Vermin are as 

 destructive, in proportion, to the Gardener as to the Hus- 

 bandman, especially rats and mice, which in gardens are 

 best destroyed by traps, having holes large enough to admit 

 rats, but small enough to exclude cats and dogs. Bait the 

 rat-trap with the following : To a pound of good flower add 

 three ounces of treacle, six drops of the oil of carraways ; 

 put them all in a dish, and rub them well together till they 

 become properly mixed, and then add a pound of crumbs of 

 bread. Set the traps as near their haunts as possible, but 

 for a few days so as not to fall or strike them as they enter, 

 letting them have free liberty to return at pleasure, which 

 will soon render them fearless. Some of the bait should be 

 also laid at the rat-holes, and a little scattered quite up to 

 the traps ; which should be scented with the following mix- 

 ture : To twenty drops of oil of rhodium, add six or seven 

 grains of musk, and half an ounce of oil of aniseed ; shake 

 them well together, in a small phial, before using; then 

 dip a piece of paper or rag in the mixture, and rub each 

 end of the trap therewith, if it be a box-trap ; and put two 

 or three drops on the bridge, leaving the paper or rag in 

 the trap. Once a year, the traps, of whatever kind, should 

 be thus scented. Then throw some chaff, mixed with a 

 little wheat, about the bottom of the trap to deceive the rats, 

 which are very sagacious, and will not enter a suspicious 

 place. This will be necessary to be done only at the first 

 time of setting the traps, for after some have been caught 

 and have watered and dunged in them, they will boldly enter 

 where they find otheis have been before. On this account 

 the trap should never be cleaned when reset. When the rat- 

 holes are found quiet, stop them up with the following com- 

 position : A pint of common tar, half an ounce of pearl ashes, 

 an ounce of oil of vitriol, and a good handful of common salt, 

 all well mixed together in an old pan or pot. Lay some of 

 this mixture thickly upon pieces of paper, stop the holes up 

 with them, and build them wholly up with brick or stone, 

 and mortar : the rats will return no more, while either taste 

 or smell remains in this composition. Rats and mice may 

 be most successfully poisoned by arsenic, well levigated, and 

 mixed with strong old cheese and oatmeal. Open traps 

 should also be set for mice, which shun close ones. To 

 destroy slugs in the garden, water the ground with soap-suds 

 and urine, mixed with tobacco-water, which will not only 

 bring them up out of their holes, but destroy their eggs. 

 Snails can only be removed by picking them off. Wasps 

 and flies may be reduced in numbers greatly by hanging up 

 bottles half full of sugar, honey, or grounds of treacle, among 

 the branches of the fruit-trees, and upon the walls also, 

 along the ground at the foot of the walls, and in short all 

 over the garden. Most other insects can only be destroyed 

 by hand, or by smoking tobacco, or sulphur, and washed off 

 by a plentiful stream of water, with lime or soap-suds. The 

 best way to defend fruit-trees from birds, is to cover them 

 with bunting, or nets, both of which unfortunately are very 

 expensive. 



Vernonia ; a genus of the class Syngenesia, order Poly- 

 gamia-jEqualis. GENERIC CHARACTER. Common Calix: 

 ovate, imbricated with numerous ovate-lanceolate, pointed, 

 coloured scales. Corolla : compound, uniform ; all the flo- 



rets tubular, equal and perfect, of one petal, funnel-shaped : 

 the tube inflexed ; border with five recurved segments. Sta- 

 mina: filamenta five, capillary, very short; antherae united 

 into a cylindrical tube. Pistil: germen oblong; style thread- 

 shaped, the length of the stamina ; stigmas two, reflexed. 

 Pericarp: none, the calix remaining unchanged. Seeds: 

 solitary, ovate. Down: capillary, coloured, sessile, longer 

 than the calix, surrounded at its base with a very short 

 crown of many chaffy bristles. Receptacle: naked, flat. 

 ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Receptacle: naked. Calix : 

 ovate, imbricated. Florets: tubular, five-cleft. Seed down: 



double ; the outer chaffy, short ; inner capillary. The 



species are, 



1. Vernonia Noveboracensis ; Lony -leaved Vernonia. 

 Leaves lanceolate, rough, finely serrated ; corymb level-top- 

 ped ; calix-scales with slender points. Stem about four feet 

 high. It occurs by road-sides, in old pastures, from Canada 

 to Carolina; flowering from August to October. 



2. Vernonia Prsealta ; Tall Vernonia. Leaves lanceolate, 

 serrated, downy beneath; corymb level-topped; calix-scales 

 ovate, pointed. Found by road-sides, from New England to 

 Carolina ; flowering from August to October. 



3. Vernonia Fasciculata ; Tufted Vernonia. Leaves linear, 

 elongated, sparingly serrated ; flowers corymbose, erect, 

 crowded ; calix ovate, smooth, with pointless scales. Native 

 of Virginia, and Illinois country; flowering in October. 



4. Vernonia Angustifolia ; Narrow-leaved Vernonia. Leaves 

 crowded, linear, elongated, nearly entire; corymb somewhat 

 umbellate ; calix-scales with little rigid points. It is found 

 in barren sandy woods, from Virginia to Georgia ; flowering 

 in August and September. 



5. Vernonia Oligophylla; Few-leaved Vernonia. Stem 

 simple, nearly naked; leaves serrated; radical ones oblong, 

 ovate, the rest lanceolate ; corymb panicled. Native of 

 South Carolina, in low and swampy Pine forests. 



6. Vernonia Anthelmintica ; Worm-seed Vernonia. Leaves 

 elliptical, serrated, roughish, tapering at each end, most 

 downy beneath ; flowers terminating, about three together. 

 The seeds, powdered, and drank with warm water, are used 

 in India to kill intestinal worms in children. Native of 

 various parts of the East Indies. 



Veronica; a genus of the class Diandria, order Mono- 

 gynia. -GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: perianth one leafed, 

 four-parted, permanent ; segments lanceolate, acute. Corolla : 

 one-petalled, wheel-shaped ; tube length almost of the calix ; 

 border four-parted, flat, with ovate segments ; the lowest 

 narrower, the opposite one broader. Stamina: filamenta 

 two, narrower at bottom, ascending ; antheree oblong. Pistil 

 germen compressed; style filiform, length of the stamina, 

 declined ; stigma simple, obtuse. Pericarp : capsule ob- 

 cordate ; compressed at the top, two-celled, four-valved. 

 Seed: numerous, roundish. Observe. The tube of the co- 

 rolla differs in the several species, but in most very short; in 

 the spiked ones long. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Corolla: 

 four-cleft, wheel-shaped, with the lowest segment narrower. 

 Capsule: superior, two-celled. The perennial plants of this 

 genus may be increased by parting their roots, which may 

 be done every other year, for if they are not often divided, 

 many of them will grow too large for the borders of small 

 gardens ; nevertheless they should not be divided into too 

 small parts, because when there is not a number of stems to 

 form a good bunch, the plants make but a mean appearance. 

 Michaelmas is the best time to part the roots, that they may 

 be well established before winter ; and when they are re- 

 moved in the spring, they seldom flower strong in the same 

 year, especially in dry seasons. Those which grow pretty 





