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VERBENA

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Originally appearing in Volume V27, Page 1016 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.

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VERBENA . The genus Verbena (vervain) in See also:

BOTANY (from Gr. l3or6v17, plant; ,66vicety, to graze)

botany gives its name to the natural See also:

order (Verbenaceae) of which it is a member. The See also:

SPECIES

species are herbaceous or somewhat shrubby, erect or procumbent, with opposite or whorled leaves, generally deeply cut. The sessile See also:

FLOWERS, ARTIFICIAL

flowers are aggregated into See also:

close spikes. Each See also:

flower has a tubular, ribbed calyx, a more or less irregular tubular two-lipped corolla, with four (didynamous) stamens springing from the interior of the corolla-See also:

TUBE (Lat. tuba)

tube. The anthers are two-celled, with or without a gland-like appendage at the See also:

APEX

apex. The ovary is entire or four-lobed, and always four-celled, with a single ovule in each See also:

CELL (from Lat. cella, probably from an Indo-European kal —seen in Lat. celare, to hide; another suggestion connects the word with Lat. cera, wax, taking the original meaning to refer to the honeycomb)

cell; the See also:

style is unequally two-lobed at the apex. The See also:

FRUIT (through the French from the Lat. fructus; frui, to enjoy)

fruit consists of four hard nutlets within the persistent calyx. There are about eighty species known, mostly natives of. tropical and subtropical See also:

AMERICA

America, a very few species occur-See also:

RING (O.E. hring; a word common to Teutonic languages; and probably cognate with the Lat. circus, Gr. KtpKOS or KpLKOS, Skt'. chakra, wheel, circle, cf. also " harangue "); in art, a band of circular shape of varying sizes, made of any material and used f

ring also in the Old See also:

WORLD

World. The vervein, or vervain, V. officinalis, native of central and See also:

north See also:

ASIA

Asia, See also:

EUROPE

Europe and North See also:

Africa, and See also:

COMMON

common on dry See also:

WASTE (O. Fr. wast, guast, gast, gaste; Lat. vastus, vast, desolate)

waste ground in the See also:

south of See also:

England (rarer in the north), was the See also:

OBJECT

object of much superstitious veneration on the See also:

PART

part of our See also:

pagan ancestors, who attributed marvellous properties to it, provided it were gathered in a particular manner and with much complex ceremonial. The plant is now but lightly esteemed, and its medicinal virtues are wholly discredited. The See also:

GARDEN (from O. Fr. garden, mod. Fr. jardin; this, like our words " garth," a paddock attached to a building, and " yard," comes from a Teutonic word for an enclosure which appears in Gothic as gards and O. H. Ger. gart, cf. Dutch gaarde and Ger. .garten)

garden verbenas are derivatives from various South See also:

AMERICAN

American species, such as V. teucrioides, a native of See also:

SOUTHERN

southern See also:

Brazil, and V. chamaedrifolia from See also:

ARGENTINA

Argentina and southern Brazil.

The range of See also:

COLOURS, MILITARY

colours extends from pure See also:

white to See also:

rose-coloured, See also:

CARMINE

carmine, See also:

VIOLET

violet and See also:

PURPLE

purple. Striped forms also are cultivated. The See also:

lemon-scented verbena of gardens, so much valued for the fragrance of its leaves, was once referred to this genus under the name V. triphylla, subsequently called Aloysia, but is now referred to the genus See also:

LIP (a word common in various forms, to Teutonic languages, cf Ger. Lippe, Dan. laebe; Lat. labium is cognate)

Lip pia as L. citriodora; it differs from Verbena in having two, not four, nutlets in the fruit. The garden verbenas, although somewhat misprized for some years, have once more become popular as bedding See also:

PLANTS

plants, and also for pot culture. They are easily raised from seeds sown in See also:

HEAT (0. E. haktu, which like " hot," Old Eng. hat, is from the Teutonic type haita, hit, to be hot; cf. Ger. hitze, heiss; Dutch, hitte, heet, &c.)

heat in See also:

FEBRUARY

February or See also:

March, but choice varieties, like See also:

MISS

Miss Willmott and others, can only be kept true when raised from cuttings. These are best secured from old plants cut down in the autumn and started into growth in See also:

GENTLE (through the Fr. gentil, from Lat. gentilis, belonging to the same gens, or family)

gentle heat and moisture the following See also:

SPRING (from " to spring," " to leap or jump up," " burst out," O. Eng., springau, a common Teut. word, cf. Ger. springer, possibly allied to Gr. QnrFpxecOac, to move rapidly)

spring. They See also:

root readily in a compost of sandy See also:

LOAM (O.E. lam; the word appears in Dut. leem and Ger. Lehm; the ultimate origin is the root lai-, meaning " to be sticky," which is seen in the cognate " lime," Lat. limus, mud, clay)

loam and See also:

LEAF (O. Eng. leaf, cf. Dutch loof, Ger. Laub, Swed. lof, &c.; possibly to be referred to the root seen in Gr. Ma-eta, to peel, strip)

leaf See also:

SOIL

soil. Besides the garden varieties, V. See also:

VENOSA (anc. Venusia, q.v.)

venosa, a Brazilian species with bluish-violet flowers, is a popular plant for massing in beds during the summer months.

End of Article: VERBENA

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