Volume 7 — PLATE CCCCXXXV.

VERBENA MUTABILIS.

Changeable-flowered Vervain.

CLASS II. ORDER I.

DIANDRIA MONOGYNIA. Two Chives. One Pointal.

ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.

Corolla infundibuliformis, sub-æqualis, curva. Calyx unifoliatus, dentatus, truncatus. Sem. 2, s. 4. nuda. Stam. 2, s. 4.

Blossom funnel-shaped, nearly equal, and curved. Empalement one-leafed, toothed, and cut off. Seeds 2, sometimes 4, naked. Chives 2, sometimes 4.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

Verbena diandra, filamenta quatuor: spica longissima, carnosa, nuda: foliis ovatis, basi productis, dentatis, scabris, villosis: floribus imprimis coccineis, denique incarnatis: caule fruticoso.

Verbena, with two chives and four filaments. Flower-spike very long, fleshy, and naked. Leaves ovate, lengthened at the base, toothed, rough, and hairy. Flowers at first scarlet, then going off in a flesh colour. Stem shrubby.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

The native place of the Verbena mutabilis seems rather enveloped in obscurity: by some it is supposed to be indigenous to Peru. It is a beautiful plant, and the most desirable Verbena we are acquainted with, as it is at least six months in successive bloom. It is one of those Verbenas that, differing a little from the general character of that genus, has received various titles from different botanists: by Professor Vahl, in his Enumeratio Plantarum, it is called Stachytarpheta. The present species has been recently figured in the Paradisus Londinensis under the title of Cymburus mutabilis, and probably at some future period it may again receive another title: but until we can find some better path to lead us into the open plain or Information, we shall keep jogging on in the old beaten track, in preference to every crooked turning that may bewilder us into the mazy labyrinth of affected Science. Our figure was made from a fine plant in the nursery of Messrs. Colville.