verticillasters

Updated: May 22, 2025

The best variety of L. vera and there are several, although unnamed improved by cultivation in England, presents the appearance of an evergreen undershrub of about two feet in height, with grayish green linear leaves, rolled under at the edges, when young; the branches are erect and give a bushy appearance to the plant; the flowers are borne on a terminal spike, at the summit of along naked stalk, the spike being composed of six to ten verticillasters, more widely separated toward the base of the spike; in young plants two or four sub-spikes will branch alternately in pairs from the main stalk; this indicates great vigor in the plant, and occurs rarely after the second year of the plant's growth.

Various - Scientific American Supplement, No. 799, April 25, 1891