344 VERBENACEAE (VERVAIN FAMILY) 



Seed-time: August to November. 



Range: New Brunswick to Minnesota, southward to Florida and 



Texas. 

 Habitat: Fields, meadows, roadsides, and waste places. 



Seeds of this plant are said to retain their vitality for several 

 years, and they are too often an impurity of poorly cleaned clover 

 and grass seed. Stem three to five feet in height, slender, four- 

 sided, finely rough-hairy or sometimes smooth, with ascending 

 branches. Leaves opposite, thin, oblong ovate, long-pointed, 

 coarsely toothed, with short, grooved petioles ; they are often 

 splotched or covered with a white mildew fungus, which makes 

 the weed most unsightly and a menace to better plants. Spikes 

 loosely panicled, very long, slender, numerous, set very sparsely 

 with tiny, white flowers, of which only a few are open at a time 

 and these are hardly noticeable. Nutlets soon fall after ripening. 



Means of control 



Small areas may be grubbed out or hand-pulled when the ground 

 is soft; but land badly infested with this weed should be put 

 under cultivation for a short rotation, in order that its perennial 

 roots and dormant seeds may be cleaned from the soil. 



BLUE VERVAIN 

 Verbena hastata, L. 



Gther English names: Wild Hyssop, Simpler's Joy. 



Native. Perennial. Propagates by seeds. 



Time of bloom: June to September. 



Seed-time: August to November. 



Range: Nova Scotia to British Columbia, southward to Florida 



and New Mexico. 

 Habitat: Moist meadows, fields, and waste places. 



A conspicuous plant because of the deep violet color of its 

 panicled spikes of flowers. Stem three to seven feet tall, erect, 

 square, finely rough-hairy, coarsely grooved, and branching near 

 the top. Leaves oblong lance-shaped, long-pointed, the lower 

 ones often halberd-shaped at base, finely rough-hairy, double- 

 toothed, darker above than below, with heavy veins and short, 



