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PB ACTIO AL GUIDE TO GARDEN PLANTS vbebena 



known and popular Lemon or Sweet- 

 scented Verbena, remarkable for its de- 

 lightful Lemon scent, particularly notice- 

 able when the branches and leaves are 

 passed through the hand. It is a native 

 of Chili, and grows several feet high in 

 favourable parts of England, such as 

 Devonshire and Cornwall, and the south 

 of Ireland. Leaves in whorls of 3, light 

 green, narrow-oblong, toothed, 2-3 in. 

 long. Flowers in summer, small, whitish 

 or pale lilac, on slender spikes. 



Culture and Propagation. — Except 

 in mild southern and western parts the 

 Lemon-scented Verbena cannot be con- 

 sidered hardy, but it may do very well in 

 many parts outside, if protected by mats 

 or litter during the winter. Around 

 Bournemouth it flourishes, and in this 

 neighbourhood it is recorded as having 

 been uninjured by 15° of frost. Easily 

 increased by cuttings. To prevent the 

 plants becoming too straggling the 

 branches should be cut back every year, 

 in autumn or winter. The oil extracted 

 from this species forms one of the in- 

 gredients of some hair restorers. 



L. noA\&ora.(Zapanianod/iflora). — Fog 

 Fruit. — A tufted creeping perennial 6-12 

 in. high, native of N. America, with spoon- 

 or lance-shaped roughish serrate leaves 

 about 1 in. long. Flowers from May to 

 September, white, pale blue, or purple, in 

 dense roundish heads on axUlary stalks. 



Culture and Propagation. — This is a 

 useful plant for bare places in the rockery 

 in any ordinary soil. Increased by cut- 

 tings in sandy soil in cold frames during 

 spring and summer. 



VERBENA (Vervain). — A genus of 

 annual or perennial herbs or under- 

 shrubs with opposite or rarely ternately 

 whorled or alternate leaves, toothed or 

 often incised or dissected, rarely entire. 

 Flowers in terminal spikes, sometimes 

 crowded in heads, sometimes distant. 

 Calyx 5-ribbed and irregularly 5-toothed. 

 Corolla tube straight or incurved, with a 

 salver-shaped 5-lobed spreading limb, regu- 

 lar, or more or less 2-lipped. Stamens 4, 

 didynamous, very rarely 2. Ovary entire 

 at the apex, or shortly 4-lobed. Fruit 

 enclosed by the calyx, dry, splitting into 

 4 one;seeded nutlets. 



Tliere are about 80 species of Verbena, 

 mostly native of tropical and sub-tropical 

 America. Only a few of the native species 

 are to be found in cultivation, chiefly 



perhaps in botanical collections. The 

 garden Verbena, Uke the Lantana, has 

 been produced by selecting and crossing 

 one or more species, the supposed pro- 

 genitors being cha/mcBd/nfoUa, scarlet; 

 incisa, rosy purple ; phlogiflora, purple 

 or lUac, varying to red and blue ; and 

 teucrioides, white or pinkish. The 

 amalgamation of these species is sufficient 

 to account for the many beautiful shades 

 of colour found in the garden Verbena. 

 But a curious fact is that they aU more 

 or less conform to the botanical char- 

 acters of the typical V. teucrioides which 

 may be briefly described as follows, chiefly 

 for the purpose of identification. 



V. teucrioides (F. Ni/uerd; V. scordi- 

 oides). — ^A native of Brazil about 2 ft. 

 high, with more or less hairy branched 

 stems which partly trail along the ground, 

 and root at the joints. Leaves nearly 

 sessile, ovate or oblong, triangular, un- 

 equally incised and toothed, and more or 

 less wrinkled. Flowers white or pinkish, 

 large, sweet-scented at night, and borne 

 in terminal, solitary, glandular hairy 

 spikes or heads. 



The garden Verbenas have a great 

 tendency to variation when raised from 

 seed, and for this reason many new 

 shades of polour are obtained every year 

 almost. With the exception of pure 

 yellow and black, it may be said that 

 every other shade of colour is to be fovmd 

 in the garden Verbena, from the purest 

 white and deepest blue to the most 

 brUliant red, passing through aU the 

 intermediate shades of rose, blue, lUac, 

 maroon, purple, crimson, brown, lavender 

 &c. 



The varieties most sought after are 

 those having a large rounded or sUghtly 

 conical truss of flowers in preference to 

 those in flat or depressed umbels, and the 

 individual flowers should be large, spread- 

 ing, flat, regular, with rounded and not 

 deeply notched lobes, and of a clear lively 

 and uniform colour, with a distinct round 

 and differently coloured eye in the centre. 



A few distinct strains have appeared. 

 That known as aurieulceflora or Auricula- 

 flowered Verbena is a distinct modifica- 

 tion of the ordinary type. The flowers 

 are large, rounded and regular, and have 

 been compared to Auriculas, hence the 

 name, the likeness being strengthened by 

 a distinct white ' eye ' in the centre of a 

 clear and deeper groimd colour. 



