VERVAIN FAMILY • 377 



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

 the soft ground in which it grows. The radical leaves are oblong, 

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

 The flowers are § 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. grandiflbra (Large-flowered Butterwort). — A larger and 

 yet more beautiful plant, with broader leaves, flowers 1 in. long, 

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

 Kerry. — Fl. May — July. Perennial. 



3. P. alpina (Alpine Butterwort). — Smaller than P. vulgaris, 

 with yellowish-white flowers, \ in. long, on short, smooth peduncles, 

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

 Fl. May, June. Perennial. 



4. P. lusitdnica (Pale Butterwort). — The smallest British 

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

 pale lilac flowers | in. long, with a yellowish throat, nearly equal 

 corolla-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. LVIII. Verbenace^e. — Vervain Family 



A considerable, but mainly tropical Order, closely allied to the 

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

 exstipulate leaves, and perfect, monosymmetric, bracteate flowers ; 

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

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

 epipetalous, or rarely 2 only ; ovary 2 or 4-chambered ; style 1 ; 

 stigma sometimes 2-cleft ; seeds 1 or 2 in each chamber. Many 

 of them are aromatic and fragrant, such as Aloysia citriodbra, 

 formerly called Verbena triphylla, the Lemon-plant of gardens, 

 well known for the delicious fragrance of its rough, lanceolate 

 leaves. Many species of Verbena 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 (Tectbna 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 



