Vervain. Thirty-two species. Hardy, half-hardy and greenhouse herbaceous perennials, and hardy and half-hardy annuals and biennials. These latter increase by seed, the perennials by cuttings. Light loam.

Choice Varieties are -

Scarlet

V. Atrosanguinea; V. Boule de Feu.

Orange Scarlet

V. formosa ele-gans; Gladiator.

White

Princess Royal; Monarch; Alba magna.

Purple

V. Stewartii; Emma.

Reddish Purple

V. rubra; V. purpurea; Renown; V. rubescens.

Ruby

Defiance; Ruby.

Rose

Bridesmaid; Wood's Princess Royal; Beauty; Supreme; Teucriodes Rosea; Rose d'Amour.

Mulberry

Mulberry.

Cream

V. lutescens.

Lilac

Messenger; Giant.

Propagation. By Seed

Sow towards the end of February in shallow pans, to be placed in a gentle heat. The seedlings may be planted out in summer in a warm part of the garden, where they will flower in the autumn.

By Cuttings

In the last week of August or first week of September, take cuttings from laterals not in bloom. Pot them in sixties, filled firmly with sandy loam and leaf-mould; water and plunge in a hot-bed, temperature not more than 45°, under a hand-glass, shading from sunshine, and when rooted pinch off their tops.

By Layers

Verbenas in the open borders are readily propagated by pegging down the laterals in September in pots filled with earth and sunk into the bed near the plants. The layers will be rooted in about six weeks, when they may be separated from the parent plant. Put them into a gentle heat, repot them, and keep through the winter in a cold frame, giving very little water during that season.

General Culture

Mr. G. Fielder, gardener to \V. Brisco, Esq., of Hastings, says that six plants of a kind are usually enough to obtain cuttings and layers from for bedding out. His mode of proceeding is as follows: -

"In the first or second week in July strike in sixty pots as many cuttings of the different kinds as required for filling the beds in the following year, about six pots of a sort being usually sufficient. Early in August, the pots being filled with roots, prepare as many boxes, two feet square sorts, filling one-third of each box with broken tiles, and the rest with one part sand, one leaf-mould, and two parts good rich loam. Plant in them at equal distances apart, and the shoots being pegged down they soon take root all over the box, and form one mass. Place in a cold frame during the winter, and the lights thrown off except in wet or frosty weather. Early in the spring they begin to make young shoots, which pot in sixty pots and strike in a cucumber frame; these will be ready to plant out by the end of April, at which time the boxes are turned out, one side being removed and the mass planted in the centre of a bed. The bed is then filled up with the young plants from the sixty pots; those out of the boxes, being oldest and strongest, take the lead and keep it." - Gard. Chron.

In Pots

Some of these trained over a trellis should always be on the greenhouse. All the particular attention required is that they should be kept regularly shifted into pots of a larger size as they require it, and should be grown either in a pit or green-house, where they receive the full benefit of the sun and air. Any free rich soil will suit them.

Such are the directions for its culture as given in the English edition of this work. In the United States the climate is more favourable for the Verbena, and when turned out in an open border early in summer, the only care requisite seems to be lest it take entire possession of the garden.