132 FAMILIAR FLOWERS OF FIELD AND GARDEN. 



Blue Vervain. Blue vervain is a tall weed with 

 Verbena hastata. j^jjjy homely flowers, that grows in 

 waste places and beside the road. There is very little 

 suggestion of blue about it ; the 

 flowers are decidedly purple, 

 and so few of them are in 

 bloom at one time that they 

 lack color effect. The plant be- 

 gins to show its tiny blossoms 

 in July. It is a relative of our 

 beautiful garden verbenas, as its 

 name implies. 

 Water Arum. The water arum, 

 CaUapaluetris. which is similar 

 in appearance to the cultivated 

 hothouse flower called calla lily 

 (wrongly named, as it does not 

 belong to the Lily family), is 

 common in boggy places north 

 of Pennsylvania. It flowers in 

 early summer, and is certainly 

 pretty enough to deserve culti- 

 vation ; but its magnificent rela- 

 tive, so much superior in size, 

 evidently precludes the prob- 

 ability of the horticulturist taking interest in the 

 lesser flower. It seems a pity, for the wild calla is 



Blue Vervain. 



