Wild Flowers East of the Rockies 289 



VERVAIN FAMILY (Verbenaceae-. 



Herbs with opposite leaves and perfect but usually 

 irregular flowers, the tubular corollas spreading into 

 two lips or four or five lobes. 



BLUE VERVAIN (Verbena hastata) is our most 

 common example of the genus. It is a tall, slender, 

 rank-growing plant reaching heights of 2 to 7 feet. 

 The leaves are dark green, short-stemmed, lanceolate, 

 sharply toothed and grow oppositely on the stem. 



At the top of the stem are numerous, slender flow- 

 er spikes, each branching from the stem and assum- 

 ing a vertical position, in a regular order suggestive 

 of candelabra. These slender spikes contain many 

 buds, the lower of which open first. From July until 

 the end of August we will find rings of purple flowers 

 about the spikes, gradually drawing nearer the ends 

 as the flowering season advances, and leaving behind 

 a long trail of purplish calyces. The tubular corolla 

 has five spreading lobes, a slender pistil and 

 two pairs of stamens. Blue Vervain, which is 

 found throughout our range, was formerly, and is now 

 to some extent, used for certain home medicinal rem- 

 edies. 



WHITE VERVAIN (Verbena urticaefolia) is a sim- 

 ilar but smaller and even more slender species found 

 in thickets and waste ground. The flower spikes are 

 very slender and the flowers much smaller than those 

 of the last species, and they are white in color. The 

 stem grows from 2 to 4 feet high, is erect, coarse, 

 four-sided and grooved. 



Verbena canadensis is quite different; it has an 

 erect bristly-hairy stem from 6 to 18 inches tall and 

 opposite, deeply lobed and toothed leaves. The lilac 

 flowers, nearly an inch broad, are in short terminal 

 clusters; the tubular corolla has five spreading, notch- 

 ed lobes. It grows in open woods and on prairies 

 from Ind. to Dakota and southwards. 



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