344 VERBENACEAE (VERVAIN FAMILY) 
Seed-time: August to November. . 
ne New Brunswick to Minnesota, southward to Florida and 
exas. 
Habitat: Fields, meadows, roadsides, and waste places. 
Seeds of this plant are said to retain their vitality for several 
years, and they are too often an impurity of poorly cleaned clover 
and grass seed. Stem three to five feet in height, slender, four- 
sided, finely rough-hairy or sometimes smooth, with ascending 
branches. Leaves opposite, thin, oblong ovate, long-pointed, 
coarsely toothed, with short, grooved petioles; they are often 
splotched or covered with a white mildew fungus, which makes 
the weed most unsightly and a menace to better plants. Spikes 
loosely panicled, very long, slender, numerous, set very sparsely 
with tiny, white flowers, of which only a few are open at a time 
and these are hardly noticeable. Nutlets soon fall after ripening. 
Means of control 
Small areas may be grubbed out or hand-pulled when the ground 
is soft; but land badly infested with this weed should be put 
under cultivation for a short rotation, in order that its perennial 
roots and dormant seeds may be cleaned from the soil. 
BLUE VERVAIN 
Verbéna hastdta, L. 
Gther English names: Wild Hyssop, Simpler’s Joy. 
Native. Perennial. Propagates by seeds. 
Time of bloom: June to September. 
Seed-time: August to November. 
Range: Nova Scotia to British Columbia, southward to Florida 
and New Mexico. 
Habitat: Moist meadows, fields, and waste places. 
A conspicuous plant because of the deep violet color of its 
panicled spikes of flowers. Stem three to seven feet tall, erect, 
square, finely rough-hairy, coarsely grooved, and branching near 
the top. Leaves oblong lance-shaped, long-pointed, the lower 
ones often halberd-shaped at base, finely rough-hairy, double- 
toothed, darker above than below, with heavy veins and short, 
