Verbena (Lat. Verlenaca Vervain From Verbena, Sacred Boughs), the botanical and common name of a very large genus of herbs and shrubs, abundant in tropical countries; also called vervain, and in France verveine. The genus gives its name to a family, the verbenacece, which is closely related to the labiates, the most important difference being that in this the ovary is entire with the style attached at the top; the plants are generally without the aromatic qualities of the labiates. The teak tree (tectona) is an important member of the family. The verbenas have opposite, often much divided leaves; the flowers sessile, in bracted spikes, or in a flat cluster which elongates after flowering; calyx five-toothed; corolla tubular, often curved, with a spreading, rather unequally five-cleft limb; the included stamens four; the fruit when ripe splitting into four one-seeded nutlets. Formerly some of the species were regarded as medicinal, and several are said to be emetics. There are less than a dozen species in the United States, some of which in the wild state hybridize remarkably, and produce puzzling intermediate forms. The most common are coarse, weed-like, unattractive plants, found in old fields, along roadsides, and in waste places.

The nettle-leaved verbena ( V. urticifolia) is 4 to 6 ft. high, with coarsely toothed leaves, and long slender spikes of small white flowers; the blue verbena (V. hastata) is about as tall, with dense spikes of blue flowers; both are very common, and are often found together. The narrow-leaved, hoary, and bracted verbenas are mostly western and southern species; the European verbena ( V. officinalis), a coarse inelegant species about 2 ft. high, is sparingly naturalized, especially in the southern states. The only one of our native verbenas sufficiently showy to be cultivated is V. Aubletia, which, with the absurd name of Rocky mountain verbena, and the incorrect botanical name V. montana, was a few years ago largely advertised as a new discovery; it is found southward and westward from Illinois and the Oarolinas; the plant has the spreading habit and the deeply cleft leaves of the garden verbenas, with light purple flowers, and has been used in the various crossings which have produced these. - The garden verbenas are among the most popular of garden flowers, and have become so thoroughly mixed by numerous hybridizings and crossings that it is difficult to trace the now popular varieties to their origin.

V. chammdrifolia was introduced into England in 1825 from Buenos Ayres, and V. phlogifolia into New York from Brazil in 1835; the first is the original scarlet, and the other the original rose-colored; about the same time seeds of V. teucroides, with white flowers, were sent to this country from Brazil; and with these three our florists produced a series of hybrids, remarkable for the brilliancy and great variety of their flowers; they comprise every color and shade, from pure white to the deepest maroon, except a yellow and a positive blue, though a close approach to blue has been attained. European florists have also been engaged upon this plant, and the named varieties are almost innumerable, with yearly additions to the list; great improvement has also been made in the size and substance of the flower, form of truss, and habit of the plant; a distinct bright eye to each flower is essential, and in the striped varieties there must be no blending of colors. The verbenas, on account of their easy propagation, rapid growth, and brilliant, constant, and long-continued flowering, are the most popular flowers for producing color effects in that style of gardening known as bedding or massing, and are among the few that are really successful in our hot summers.

The propagation from cuttings is rapid and easy, every joint making a plant; so readily does the stem throw out roots, that if a bouquet be left in water for a few days, the verbena stems will be found with minute rootlets. Where no particular colors are desired, the plants may be raised from seed, and if sown in the open ground in May will bloom in August. - The sweet-scented or lemon verbena belongs to a different genus of the same family; it is Lippia (formerly Aloysia) citriodora, a low, weak-branched shrub from Chili, with whorls of linear-lanceolate roughish leaves, and small, slender spikes of bluish white flowers; the leaves abound in glandular dots which contain a volatile oil, the fragrance of which is generally acceptable, and they are muoh used in summer bouquets. The plant is deciduous, and must have a season of rest; it is usually set in the open ground in spring, and housed in winter under the stage of a greenhouse or in a cellar. It can be trained in the form of a tree, with a distinct trunk and round head.

Verbena. Garden Hybrids.

Hybrid Garden Verbenas.