VEBBENA 



VEBVAIN OBDEB 



CLEEODENDRON 741 



The Italian or variegated or striped 

 Verbenas originated in Italy, and are re- 

 markable for their large flowers having 

 stripes or bands of red, rose, blue, purple, 

 carmine &c. radiating fcom the centre 

 to the circumference on a white ground. 

 Sometimes in the same cluster of flowers 

 may be seen some striped, some of a 

 uniform colour, and others half one colour 

 and half another, or half striped and half 

 self-coloured. These peculiar varieties 

 are best increased by cuttings, as seeds 

 give only a small proportion of variegated 

 flowers. 



Culture and Propagation. — Garden 

 Verbenas flourish in light garden soil 

 enriched with leaf -mould and decomposed 

 manure. They are easily raised from 

 seeds sown about the beginning of Febru- 

 ary to the end of March and April for a 

 succession on a hotbed or warm green- 

 house. When large enough to handle 

 easily the seedlings may be pricked singly 

 into small pots in light rich soil and grown 

 on for some time in the same place where 

 they were raised. About April they may 

 be placed in larger pots, and by the end of 

 May, having in the meantime been grown 

 in cooler and more airy quarters, they 

 will be ready for the flower garden, leaving 

 a space of 6-12 in. between the plants. 

 By pegging the stems down they will 

 throw up shoots from the leaf axils, and 

 as almost every shoot ends in a cluster of 

 flowers, the effect during the summer and 

 early autumn months is magnificent. 



Seedlings are so easily raised in the 

 way mentioned that it really is not worth 

 while to increase Verbenas by cuttings 

 except in the case of very fine varieties. 

 Cuttings are best obtained in early spring 

 from the stools of old plants which were 

 lifted in autumn, cut back hard, and 

 grown on in a warm greenhouse. They 

 may be inserted in light sandy soil on a 

 hotbed, and when rooted may be grown 

 on in the same way as the plants obtained 

 from seed. 



V. venosa. — A beautiful Brazilian 

 species about 2 ft. high. Leaves some- 

 what stem-clasping, oblong wedge-shaped 

 entire, crenate-toothed, wrinkled and 

 roughish above, strongly haired beneath. 

 Flowers from June to October, bluish- 

 violet or lilac, in umbel-like heads. 



Culture and Propagation. — This is an 

 excellent species for beds or groups mixed 

 with other plants. Its flowers last longer 



than those of the hybrid varieties and are 

 not so much spoiled by drenching rains. 

 It may be increased by cuttings of the 

 young shoots in spring from old plants 

 grown in greenhouses during the winter. 

 Seed may also be used, but as it takes 

 a rather long time to germinate should be 

 sown as early as the middle of January so 

 as to obtain plants sufficiently early for 

 planting out. If thp seeds are steeped in 

 warm water for a few hours, they will 

 probably germinate more freely. 



The branches of V. venosa may be 

 pegged down in the same way as the gar- 

 den forms so as to give a broad carpet of 

 flowers. 



Other species of Verbena sometimes 

 met with are Aubletia and its varieties, 

 Drummondi, and Lamberti elegams, an 

 annual with blue flowers, incisa and 

 tenera. 



VITEX (Chaste Tree ; Hemp Tkbe ; 

 Monk's Pepper Tree). — A genus of 

 smooth, hairy or downy trees or shrubs. 

 Leaves opposite, often digitately com- 

 pound or simple. Flowers white, blue, 

 violet or yellowish, in terminal or axillary 

 panicles or cymes. Calyx beU-shaped 5- 

 toothed. CoroUa salver-shaped, with a 

 cylindrical straight or slightly incurved 

 tube, and an oblique somewhat 2-lipped 

 limb having 5 spreading lobes. Stamens 

 4, didynamous, often protruding. Fruit a 

 more or less fleshy drupe. 



V. Agnus-castus. — An aromatic shrub 

 6-12 ft. high, native of S. Europe. Leaves 

 long-stalked, usually composed of 5-7 

 lance-shaped taper-pointed leaves, entire 

 or sometimes toothed, and whitish be- 

 neath. Flowers in August, pale lilac or 

 violet, in interrupted spikes at the ends of 

 the branches. 



Culture and Propagation. — This 

 species is the only one out of about 60 

 that can be grown out of doors in favour- 

 able parts of the British Islands. It will 

 thrive in ordinary good weU-drained gar- 

 den soil that is not too moist, and may be 

 increased by cuttings of the ripened shoots 

 in autumn placed under a handlight in 

 good sandy soil. Vitex incisa an Indian 

 shrub with purple flowers would seem to 

 be quite as hardy in the south as V. 

 Agnus-castus, but is not so well known. 



CLERODENDRON.— A large genus 

 of trees or shrubs, sometimes climbing, 

 having opposite or rarely ternately 

 whorled entire or rarely toothed or angled 



