VERVAIN FAMILY 377 



beautiful plant. The root is fibrous, and has a very loose hold on 

 the soft ijround iri which it grows. The radical leaves are oblong, 

 pale green, and of a peculiar, parchment-like, frosted appearance. 

 The flowers are 1} in. long, violet, and handsome, growing in a 

 nodding manner on a peduncle 3 — 4 in. long, with very unequal 

 corolla-lobes and a short, tapering spur. — Bogs, heaths, and wet 

 rocks, principally in the north. — Fl. May — July. Perennial. 



2. P. grandiflora (Large-flowered Butt^rwort). — A larger and 

 yet more beautiful plant, with broader leaves, flowers i in. long, 

 with a longer and often notched spur. — Bogs in co. Cork and 

 Kerry. — Fl. May — July. Perennial. 



3. P. alpina (Alpine Butteru'ort). — Smaller than P. vulgaris, 

 with yellowish-white //orofM, -J in. long, on short, smooth peduncles, 

 and with a very short, conical spur, — Bogs" in Ross and Skye. — 

 ¥1. May, June. Perennial. 



4. P. lusitdiiica (Pale Butterwort).— -The smallest British 

 species, with greenish-white, veined leaves, downy peduncle, and 

 pale lilac floivers g- in. long, with a yellowish throat, nearly equal 

 curoUa-lobes, and blunt, cylindrical spur, curved downwards. — 

 Bogs in the south-west of England and the west of Scotland and 

 Ireland. — Fl. June — September. Perennial. 



Ord. L^'III. Vereenace.e. — Verv.vin Family 



A considerable, but mainly tropical C)rder, closely allied to the 

 LabidtcF, comprising trees, shrubs, and herbs, with opposite, 

 exstipulate leaves, and perfect, monosymmetric, bracteate flmeers ; 

 calyx inferior, tubular, imbricate, persistent ; corolla hypogynous, 

 with a long tube, usually 2-lipped, imbricate ; slaineus didynamous, 

 epipetalous, or rarely :: only : cvarv 2 or .4-cliambered ; style i ; 

 stigma, sometimes 2-cleft ; seeds i or 2 in .each chamber. Many 

 of them are aromatic and fragrant, such as Alorsia citnodora, 

 formerly called I'erfinia. iriphvlla, the Lemon-plant of gardens, 

 well known for the delicious fragrance of its rough, lanceolate 

 leaves. Many species of I'erbciia from America are cultivated for 

 their brilliantly coloured flowers ; and, though it is now little 

 thought of, great virtues were in ancient times attributed to the 

 one British representative of the Order, the common Vervain, 

 insomuch that it was accounted a holy plant, and is said to have 

 been used to sweep the tables and altars of the gods. By far the 

 most valuable plant in the Order is the Teak {Tectona grdndis), a 

 native of India and Burma. The trunk of this tree sometimes 

 attains the height of two hundred feet, and its leaves are twenty 



