AGNUS CASTUS. 



VITEX AGNUS-CASTUS. 



VERBENACE^. DIDYNAMIA ANGIOSPERMIA. 



Named Vitex from the flexibility of the twigs : the word Agnus 

 in Greek has the same signification as CasfAis in Latin, chaste in 

 English. The name refers to the celebrity the seeds of this shrub 

 enjoyed in old times, for promoting chastity; wherefore, in the 

 festivals in honour of Ceres, the Athenian matrons strewed them 

 on their couches. From the same notion, and from the aromatic 

 pungency of the seeds, it has been also called monk's-pepper; 

 and hemp tree, from the form of the leaves. — French^ gattilier. — 

 Italian, agno casto, vitice. 



This shrub grows eight or ten feet high, branched all 

 the way ; the leaves grow seven together at the end of 

 a long footstalk, something in the manner of lupine 

 leaves; gradually diminishing from the middle one to 

 those on the outside : they are dark green on the upper 

 side, hoary beneath. The flowers grow in spikes, a foot 

 or more in length, at the ends of the branches ; they are 

 white or blue, and set in whorls at regular distances. 

 They blow late in the year; the shrub is often in full blos- 

 som in the middle of October. In warm seasons when 

 the flowers open freely, their odour is very pleasant. 



The Agnus castus is a native of Sicily, Naples, 

 Egypt, Tunis, Aleppo, Virginia, and the islands of the 

 Archipelago. It was cultivated in this country as early 

 as the year 1570, but does not produce seeds here. It 

 is recorded that Juno was brought into the world under 

 a shrub of Agnus castus, on the banks of the Imbrasus, 



