128 FARM WEEDS OF CANADA 



THE VERVAIN FAMILY (Verbenaceae). 



A family of mostly tropical plants, closely allied to the 

 mints, represented in Canada by only a few weeds and many 

 varieties of ornamental plants. 



White Vervain (Verbena urticaefolia L.), probably intro- 

 duced but indigenous in eastern Canada and common along 

 roadsides, waste places and pasture lands, from New Brunswick 

 to Ontario. It grows from 3 to 5 feet high, has white flowers 

 in slender, branching clusters, and stalked, oval, acute leaves, 

 coarsely dentate with sharp, forward-pointing teeth. 



Narrow-leaved Vervain (Verbena angustifolia Michx.) is 

 abundant on dry limestone soils in Quebec and Ontario. It 

 is a low perennial with a deep root; roughish, narrowly lance- 

 shaped leaves tapering at the base, stalkless: flowers in dense 

 spikes, purple, and larger than those of Blue Vervain. 



Blue Vervain (Verbena hastata L.) is the commonest weed 

 of this family. It is a tall plant, from 4 to 6 feet in rich, moist 

 soil; stem 4-angled and branched. Leaves stalked, lance-shaped, 

 taper-pointed, with sharp, forward-pointing teeth. Flowers 

 violet blue, small, borne in a cluster of spikes at the summit. 



The seed (Plate 75, fig. 61) is brown except the large, whitish 

 basal scar at the bottom of the inner face. The outer face is 

 convex, irregularly ridged lengthwise and sharply angled at the 

 sides. The inner face slopes to the margin from a sharply- 

 angled central ridge. This seed is often found in timothy and 

 other grass seeds. 



Vervain is used in casting lots, telling fortunes, and foreshadowing future events by 

 way of prophesie. Of all Hearbes there is none more honoured among the Romans than 

 the sacred plant Vervaine. It is that hearbe our ambassadors use to carry with them 

 when they declare war, and to give defiance unto our enemies. With this hearbe the 

 festivall table of Jupiter is wont to be swept and cleaned with great solemnitie, with it 

 our houses also be rubbed and halloweed for to drive away ill spirits. . . .They report 

 that if the dining roome be sprinkled with water in which the herbe hath been steeped 

 the guests will be merrier. 



Pliny, 70. 



