696 DIDYNAMIA. GYMNOSPERMIA. Verbena. 
Whitchurch, near Denbigh, and in many places by the road side between 
Denbigh and Ruthin. E.) Dudley Castle : Need wood Forest, Stafford¬ 
shire. P. July.* 
VERBE'NA.f Bloss. funnel-shaped, curved ; segments nearly 
equal: Calyx , one of its teeth shorter: Seeds two or 
four, naked. 
V. officina'lis. Spikes slender, panicled: leaves deeply laciniate: 
stem solitary. 
{E.Bot. 767. E.)— Ludw. 149— Curt. — Kniph. 4— Riv. Mon. 56, Verbena 
— Woodv. 21S— Wale. — Clus. ii. 45. 2 —■Dod. 150. 1— Lob. Ohs. 2 89. 2, and 
Ic.i. 534. 2 — Ger. Em. 718. 1— Park. 675. 1— FI. Pan. 628— Blackw. 41 
—Trag . 210— Matth. 1052— Ger. 580. 1— Fuchs. 593— J. B. iii. 443— 
Louie, i. 138. 2. 
Lower-leaves deeply lobed, and jagged, the upper three-cleft, or simple. 
Woodward. Stem nearly quadrangular, panicled. Flowering branches 
in opposite pairs. Floral-leaves spear-shaped. Calyx one of the teeth 
much smaller and shorter than the rest, but not lopped; angles hairy. 
Blossom small; tube fringed at the top with hairs ; mouth with two lips, 
the upper cloven into two, the lower into three nearly equal segments ; 
purplish. Stamens four, two of them longer. Seeds four, (the pellicle 
evanescent, leaving them naked. E<) The structure of the flower and 
fruit must inevitably lead the English Botanist to look for it in this 
Class, though Linnaeus has placed it in Diandria, because the greater 
number of species have only two stamens. ( Root woody, branched. 
Stem one foot and a half high, upright, rough with scattered prickles. 
* An infusion of it is deemed a specific in chlorotic cases. Two ounces of the expressed 
juice may be given for a dose. Cats are so delighted with this plant, especially when 
withered, that they can hardly be kept out of the garden wherein it grows, (rolling 
themselves on it, tearing it up, and chewing it with evident pleasure. These animals are 
also affected with a like whimsical predilection for Teucrium Marum. E.) However 
inexplicable, Miller confirms the old saying, “ If you set it, the cats will eat it; if you 
sow it, the cats will not know it.” It cannot well be planted without being more or less 
bruised. Stokes. Sheep eat it. Cows, horses, goats, aud swine refuse it. 
j* (From the Celtic name Ferfaen , and probably referring to its use in the rites of 
heathen worship, and the idolatrous sacrifices of the pagans. “ Vainly conceiting,” as 
a sensible old writer observes, “ that it could drive away the devil, whose great design has 
ever been to entice ignorant men, by such subtile craft, to sorcery and witchcraft; by 
trusting to creatures, more than the Creator, which is one accursed way of taking God’s 
name in vain.” “Thus have I seen,” says the same author, “a man wearing an iron 
ring made of the clasps of a dead man’s coffin, to cure the rheumatism ! But those who 
prescribe such charms are no better than wizards; and those who use them, may say the 
devil is their helper; which homologates the renouncing of the Covenant of God.” 
Equally efficacious is the notable “ Muscus innatus cranio humano ,” the moss growing on a 
dead man's scull, an Irish specific, according to Threlkeld, “ where the poor people, 
who are naturally hospitable, being misled by restless companions , run into war, foolishly 
thinking to throw off the blessing of the English government .” Well would it be if all 
such pretended amulets were put to the test practised by Albert, Duke of Saxony, on a 
juggler who offered thus to impart infallibility to him. “ Well,” quoth the Duke, “ that I 
may be sure of it, I will make the trial first upon thee;” so drew his sword, and hacked the 
fellow insomuch that neither by the Shemham-phorasch, nor by the hanging of the Kamea, 
(a parchment wherein the sacred names were written), could he be cured.”—We should 
blush to record errors so gross, and long since consigned to oblivion, did not the peculiar 
signs of the times,” indicate a revival even of such absurdities, E.) 
