Plate 89. 
VARIETIES OE VERBENA. 
Verbena Jtybrida , vars. 
Few flowers occupy so prominent a position in the modern 
style of gardening as the Verbena, the great variety of colour, 
the dwarf yet free habit of growth, and the ease with which it 
is multiplied, all conducing to its universal adoption for the 
purpose of bedding and ribboning; while the same properties 
cause it to find a home in most of the smaller gardens of those 
who exhibit any taste for flowers. But an observer will hardly 
fail to notice that, for this purpose, those varieties are used 
which are either seifs, that is, all of one shade of colour, or else 
those which are shaded with deeper hues of the same tint; for 
flowers with the centre, of a different colour to the rest of the 
petal make a contrast which effectually mars the intention of 
the designer, who must be perfectly aw fait at the arrange¬ 
ment of colours. 
But Verbenas are grown for other purposes: they make very 
effective pot-plants; and the blooms, when cut, form a pretty 
variety in the various exhibitions of flowers both in the metro¬ 
polis and the country. Here what are called eyed flowers are 
not only useful, but exceedingly ornamental; and there is no 
person who has been more successful in raising this kind of 
flower than our friend Mr. Perry, of The Cedars, Castle Brom¬ 
wich, near Birmingham. Possessed with an ardent love for 
flowers, and himself a most successful exhibitor, he has carried 
on his hybridizing so carefully that his flowers have attained a 
large size and great variety in colour, so that he rarely meets 
with a competitor who can distance him. 
To grow Verbenas for exhibition, it is necessary to plant 
them out in a frame or pit, in some nice light and rich soil, to 
peg them down as they make growth, and to carefully fumigate 
