vervain

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. See verbena.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. One of several weedy plants of the genus Verbena, primarily V. officinalis, widely dispersed in warm and temperate regions in both hemispheres. It is a plant a foot or two high, with spreading wiry branches, and very small flowers in slender racemes. It had sacred associations with the Druids, as indeed among the Romans; it has been worn as an amulet, held to be serviceable to witches and against them, used in love-philters, and credited with virtue against a variety of diseases. In Christian times it became associated with the cross, whence much of its repute. It is also called Juno's-tears, holy-herb, herb-of-grace or herb of the cross, and pigeon's-yrass. (See pigeon's-grass.) The plant has a bitterish and astringent taste, and perhaps some slight febrifugal and other virtue, but is replaced by better remedies. In America several other verbenas receive the name, as V. hastata, the blue vervain, a tallish sleuder plant with small blue flowers, V. stricta, the hoary vervain, a hairy plant with larger purple flowers, and V. urticæfolia, the white or nettle-leafed vervain, with small white flowers.

Wiktionary

1. n. A herbaceous plant, Verbena officinalis, common in Europe and formerly held to have medicinal properties.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Bot.) Any plant of the genus Verbena.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. any of numerous tropical or subtropical American plants of the genus Verbena grown for their showy spikes of variously colored flowers