[ 7*7 1
V E R B E N A officinalis.
Common Vervain.
I /(to
DIDYNAM1A Gymnofperntia.
Gen. Cha.r. Cor. funnel-ffiaped, nearly equal, curved.
Cal. with 5 teeth, one of them fhorter than the
reft. St am. a or 4. Seeds 2 or 4, enclofed in a
thin tunic.
S pec. Char. Stamina four. Spikes flender, panicled.
Leaves deeply cut. Stem moftly folitary.
Syn. Verbena officinalis. Linn. Sp. PI. 29. Sm. FI.
Brit. 609. 'Hud/. 249. With. 520. Hull. 6.
Relb. 221. Sibth. 181. Abbot. 127. Curt. Bond,
fafc. 1 .1. 41. Woodv. Suppl. t. 218.
V. vulgaris. Raii Syn. 236.
OT unfrequent by road tides, in dry funny paftures, and
watte places about villages, flowering in July.
Root perennial, branching, woody. From each of its fum-
mits rifes a folitary Item, curved at the bafe, about a foot high,
fquare, leafy, rough with little prickles, panicled at the top
with feveral oppofite {lender fpikesof flowers. Leaves oppofite,
deeply cut and jagged. Flowers fmall, fetlile, each accompanied
by a little braftea. Calyx rough, tubular. Corolla of
a very pale lilac hue, its tube enclofing the four fhort curved
ftamina. Seeds when young enfolded in one common fkin or
tunic, which is almoft obliterated as they ripen, and then each
appears marked with excavated dots at its upper part.
Although many fpecies of V e r b e n a have but 2 ftamina, yet
the majority having 4, 2 of which are longer than the others,
the genus furely comes moft naturally into the clafs D i d y n a m i a ,
among plants to which it is clofely allied.
The root of this plant worn by a firing round the neck is
an old fuperftitious medicine for Scrophulous diforders, and its
ufe has been revived by an empiric in our days, very properly
expofed by Mr, Curtis in his F l o r a L o n d t n e n j i s .