476 



HENDERSON'S HANDBOOK OF PLANTS 



VEB 



which should be sown four months before the 

 plants are wanted, as the seed is frequently 

 slow in germinating. Verbenas are easily 

 grown from seed, which should be sown in a 

 hot-bed or the green-house in early spring, 

 and once pricked out before planting in the 

 flower-bed. Plants from seed will be more 

 vigorous than from cuttings ; but when spe- 

 cial colors are wanted seedlings cannot be de- 

 pended upon. At the low price the plants are 

 now sold in the markets, it is cheaper to buy 

 them than to grow them from seed ; but when 

 the amateur is not convenient to the florist, 

 the supply can be easily kept up from seed. 

 In growing Verbenas, successive plantings 

 should not be made on the same ground ; the 

 less frequently the better. It is not that they 

 exhaust the soil that renders a change neces- 

 sary, but when grown more than once on the 

 same spot, they are far more liable to be 

 attacked by the Aphis at the roots, which is 

 fatal to them. The varieties selected by flo- 

 rists in the United States are far superior to 

 those of Europe, so that for the past twenty 

 years hardly any importations have been made 

 of either seeds or plants. The plant is better 

 suited to our climate, and is far more exten- 

 sively cultivated here than in Europe. The 

 Verbena delights in a sweet, turfy loam ; 

 clayey or sandy soils should be avoided in the 

 selection of the bed. 



Verbena Oil Plant. A name given to Andro- 

 pogon Sc}ujenanthu&. 



Verbena. Sand. A common name for Abro- 

 nia. 



Verbena. Sweet Scented. See Aloysia citrio- 



dora. 



Verbeiia'ceae. A natural order of trees, shrubs 

 or herbs, widely scattered over the warmer 

 parts of the globe, and especially abundant in 

 south temperate regions, a few genera only 

 being found in Europe, northern Asia and 

 North America. Teak, one of the most im- 

 portant timbers in the world, is the wood of 

 Tectona grandis. The well-known Lemon 

 Verbena, Aloysia (Lippia) citrioidora, and sev- 

 eral species of Lantana are used as Tea. The 

 order is distributed into over fifty genera and 

 nearly seven hundred species. Clerodendron, 

 Lantana, Verbena and Vitex are good exam- 

 ples. 



Verbesi'na. Crown Beard. Altered from Ver- 

 bena, which some of the species are supposed 

 to resemble. Nat. Ord. Composite. 



A genus of annual or perennial herbs or 

 shrubs, natives of the West Indies, California, 

 Texas and Mexico. V. encelioides is a showy, 

 half-hardy species, one to two feet high, with 

 broad clusters of yellow flowers. V. gigantea, 

 an ornamental shrub from Jamaica, about six 

 feet high, forms, when young, a very pleasing 

 plant for decorative purposes, its round, green 

 stems being covered with large, winged, pin- 

 nate leaves of a glistening, delicate green 

 color and very elegant outline. V. pinnatifida 

 is a roughish, half-shrubby species, with a 

 winged stem and woolly, oval leaves with 

 lobed or toothed margins. They may be in- 

 creased by seeds or divisions ; the shrubby 

 species by cuttings. Syn. Ximenesia. 



Verei'a. A synonym of Kalanchoe. 



Vermicular. Worm-shaped. 



Vernal. Appearing in spring. 



VEE 



Vernal-Grass. The common name for Anthox- 

 anthum odoratum. 



Vernation. The arrangement of leaves in a 

 bud. 



Vernicose. Covered with natural varnish ; ap- 

 pearing as if varnished. 



Verno'nia. Iron Weed. Named in honor of 

 William Vernon, a botanical traveler in North 

 America. Nat. Ord. Composite. 



A very large genus of herbs or shrubs, 

 chiefly tropical, but found most copiously in 

 the warmer parts of America. V. Novebora- 

 censis is common on low grounds near the 

 coast, from Maine to Virginia, and with V. 

 fasciculata on the prairies and river-banks in 

 the Western States, Ohio to Wisconsin and 

 southward. 



Vero'nica. Speedwell. The derivation of the 

 word is doubtful ; perhaps the flower of St. 

 Veronica. Nat. Ord. Scrophulariaceoe. 



An extensive genus of, for the most part, 

 hardy ornamental plants, well adapted for the 

 borders of the flower garden. Their stature 

 varies from creeping plants to others three or 



. four feet high. The prevailing color is blue, 

 though white, pink, red and purple are found 

 among them. The green-house species are 

 most generally shrubby and deserve atten- 

 tion, being easy to grow and flower, and they 

 are handsome in foliage, habit and inflores- 

 cence. This class delights in a mixture of 

 leaf mould and loam, and with plenty of root- 

 room speedily make fine specimens. The spe- 

 cies usually met in the green-house are from 

 New South Wales. The hardy, herbaceous 

 species are distributed throughout the tem- 

 perate regions of both continents. The 

 shrubby kinds are generally increased by cut- 

 tings ; the herbaceous or annual sorts by di- 

 vision or by seeds. 



Verrucose. Warty; covered with wart-like, 

 sessile elevations. 



Versatile. Turning freely on its support, swing- 

 ing to and fro. 



Verschaffe'ltia. Named in honor of Ambrosius 

 Verschaffelt, a nurseryman of Ghent, who wrote 

 a work on Camellias in 1848. Nat. Ord. PaL- 

 macece. 



V. splendida, the only recognized species, 

 was introduced from the Seychelle Islands in 

 1864. It is a very handsome stove house 

 species with cuneate-obovate, deeply-incised 

 leaves, three to five feet long. The stem is 

 six to twelve inches in diameter and with 

 the leaf-sheaths and petioles very spiny when 

 young. It is known in cultivation as Regelia 

 magnifica, R. majestica and R. princeps. 



Vertex. The apex of an organ. 

 Verticillate. Arranged in whorls. 



Vertico'rdia. Juniper Myrtle. From verto to 

 turn, and cor, cordis, a heart ; a title of Venus, 

 to whom the Myrtle was sacred. Nat. Ord. 

 MyrtacecB. 



A genus of green-house shrubs, much re- 

 sembling the Heaths or Diosmas, natives of 

 Australia. They are of easy culture in a com- 

 post of sandy loam and leaf-mould, and are 

 readily increased by cuttings of the half- 

 ripened shoots. 



