1914 



VERBENA 



Whites, and the Matter of Fragrance. -Ot the four 

 prototypes, K. teitcrioides alone was white, or white 

 with a shade of pink or an imitation of yellow. Among 

 the hybrid Verbenas there have been, from the first, a 

 few prominent white varieties; but there is no period 

 during which the proportion of whites exceeded about 

 one in eight, or one in ten. Whites are more frequently 

 fragrant than other colors. Good reds are seldom or 

 never fragrant, pinks occasionally so, mauves, purples 

 and blues frequently so. A rich jessamine fragrance 

 was one of the noteworthy characters of K. teucrioides. 

 Whites in many, perhaps a majority of cases, show 

 foliage and pubescence characters of V, iettcrioides. 

 This is especially true in plants propagated from seed. 



VERBENA 



The Striped Varieties. -- Tvo classes of so-called 

 striped Verbenas have arisen: one sort having the me- 

 dian portion of each lobe of the corolla of a dark color, 

 usually red or rose, and the margin white; the other 

 sort having irregular stripes, dots and dashes of red, 

 rose or purple upon a white ground color. See Fig. 

 2651. The former class seems to have originated with 

 the British florists somewhat previous to 1849, and was 

 the most popular "striped" class with them for many 

 years after the introduction of the second class of 

 striped ones. The true striped or Italian Verbenas were 

 introduced into France and England from Italy about 

 1862. Cavagnini Brothers, of Brescia, are given the 

 credit of having originated this unique race. It is the 

 general opinion of writ- 



tenera. However, it is 

 impossible to determine 

 with certainty the paren- 

 tage of hybrids on struc- 

 tural characters alone. 

 The true explanation 

 may be that the V. pnl- 

 chella which is said to 

 have been used, was not 

 V. tenera, Spreng., but 

 some form of V.hyhrida, 

 Hort. The striped va- 

 rieties are unstable and 

 have a strong tendency 

 to revert to " selfs," 

 whether propagated by 

 seed or by cuttings. In 

 the writer's own experi- 

 ence, a seedling with 

 blu 





the riEht was introduced about 1862. and is the only one known to-day. 



lat different shades 

 'sented in the wild 

 rn: liowever, there 



Blues and Purples.— It seems tl 

 of purple were occasionallv repre 

 forms of V. inrixn and ji'hlniiiflo 

 were no distiurtly blue <iiir^, ami in 

 the Verbena ll.ii-r i^ a d, imiIi .iI' 

 And in the Finij^i .if i>r.i. iliai " lUmiHard " is "really 



blue" and that "a ^^ I lilur lias Ichilt lin-n wanted, 



most of the sn-ralli il l.lu.s bi'ing of a blue-purple 

 color." Subsia|uiiii to till' lifties the number of blue 

 varieties reca.r.l. ci in li^i^ appreciably increase, but 

 they by no means iipial tin- reds, being little if at all 

 in excess of the nnmlier of whites. Our best blues of 

 to-day (for example Blue Boy) are of a deep, royal 

 purple (per Ridgeway's color plates) rather than really 



blue. A great 

 represented. J 

 grown, espc'iMa 



age, pubesciiM 

 ble this sja-.i, 



1".//..-, \ 

 a Vrr-i.i M , I.. . 



■of 



Intea, Vilra., was produced from 

 is "bright yellow," and that it will 

 by Verbena lovers." 



shades of purple are 



rs that I . triterioides 

 V. teucrioides, that it 

 be "joyfully received 



corolla reverted in four 

 generations of cuttings, 

 so that some of the 

 plants produced only 

 flowers that were solid 

 blue ; others, flowers 

 that were white with 

 only an occasional small mark of blue. Striped Ver- 

 benas afford excellent opportunity for the study of bud- 

 variation. 



Production of Leaf- Variegation {yellow foliage).— 

 Comparatively little attention has been given to leaf- 

 variegation among the Verbenas. However, a number 

 of varieties having leaves variegated with yellow were 

 introduced about 1865, during the period when varie- 

 gated plants were so popular. At present we have a 

 strain of yellowish leaved Verbenas which come true 

 to this character from seed. 



Development of the Gompactas. — T.'\]\ in Hm Insiory 

 of the Verbenas their "straggling' a ' "al.lc" 



habit of growth was lamented. <■! „—iiig 



was necessary in order to keep tli. , n, .my de- 

 sired position and repeated efforts «i ii ukuIi i.. htcure 

 bedding varieties of closer, more upright habit. Con- 

 siderable progress was made by British florists during 

 the sixties. Most of the progress, however, has been 

 made subsequent to 1870 and the German Verbena 

 Lirowa-rs of Erfurt deserve much of the credit for the 

 pi'"liii'tion of this splendid little race that has done so 

 iiMirti to help restore the Verbena again to popularity. 

 I'omi'a.-tas have br-pn fixed in various colors so that 

 they will r.iih 1 1 II, fnan -< . ,1 In most botanical char- 

 acters tin I iiifoliaanAphlogiflora. 

 Den I"! i \ nHuals. Seed-Fixing. 

 —When ill- \.ii"iia- i,.M i,i~i introduced they were 



