[a. L. verbēna (usually in pl. verbēnæ) in sense 1, med. and mod.L. verbēna (= L. verbēnāca) in sense 2; hence also It., Sp., Pg. verbena, and F. verveine VERVAIN.]
1. Roman Antiq. In pl., the leaves or twigs of certain plants or shrubs (as olive, myrtle, laurel, etc.) having a sacred character and employed in religious ceremonies.
1600. Holland, Livy, App. 1359. There was an hallowed place likewise upon the Capitoll, from whence they gathered Verbenæ, or sacred hearbs.
1685. Temple, Ess., Gardens, Wks. 1720, I. 178. Verbenas, which signifies all Kinds of Sweet or Sacred Plants that were used for adorning the Altars; as Bays, Olive, Rosemary, Myrtle.
1856. R. A. Vaughan, Mystics (1860), I. 98. Passages were culled … with as much care and reverence as the sacred verbenæ that grew within the enclosure of the Capitolini.
2. The plant VERVAIN; also, one or other plant of the genus Verbena or the order Verbenaceæ.
1562. Turner, Herbal, II. 161 b. And Pliny maketh two kindes of Verbena, or Verbenaca.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Verbena, the Herb Vervain, much us’d by the ancient Heathens in their Sacrifices.
1731. Miller, Gard. Dict., Verbena, Vervain.
1827–44. Willis, Declaration, 4. A scent Of orange leaves and sweet verbena.
1842. Loudon, Suburban Hort., 201. Cuttings of hardy or half-hardy herbaceous plants, such as pinks,… petunias, verbenas, rockets.
1891. Hall Caine, Scapegoat, ix. The country of the verbena and the musk that lies outside the walls of Fez.
attrib. 1855. Miss Pratt, Flower. Pl., IV. 207. Verbenaceæ. The Verbena Tribe.
b. With distinguishing terms.
1847. Darlington, Amer. Weeds (1860), 228. Nettle-leaved Verbena. Common Vervain.
1852. G. W. Johnson, Cottage Gard. Dict., 27/1. Aloysia, sweet-scented Verbena.
1866. Treas. Bot., 1210/1. The Aloysia citriodora is the Lemon-scented Verbena of the gardens.
1888. Encycl. Brit., XXIV. 163/2. The garden verbenas, once so popular for bedding out, are derivatives from various South-American species.
3. A perfume obtained from the leaves of vervain. Oil of verbena (see quots.).
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Verbena, an otto, one of the finest perfumes, obtained by distillation from the citron-scented leaves of Aloysia citriodora. Owing to its high price it is … imitated … by mixing the otto of lemon grass with rectified spirits, and this passes as oil of verbena.
1866. Treas. Bot., 1210/1. The lemon-grass, Andropogon Schœnanthus or A. citratum, from which the ‘oil of verbena’ is extracted.
