336 VERBENACE^E. Verbena. 



V. Caroliniana, Michx. Cinereous-puberulent and scabrous-pubescent : stems mostly 

 simple, ascending, from inches to 2 feet high, including the commonly solitary long and 

 virgate spike : leaves oblong and the lowest obovate, obtuse, sessile, finely and often doubly 

 serrate : flowers in the upper part of the spike crowded : bracts subulate, equalling the calyx : 

 corolla flesh-color; the lower lobe a line long, the others shorter. Fl. ii. 13; Ell. Sk. ii. 99. 

 Phryma Caroliniensis, Walt. Car. 160. Verbena Caroliniana, Kay, and as to this at least 

 V. Carolina, L., but seemingly not V. Carolinensis, Dill. Elth. V. carnea, Med. ex Schauer 

 in DC. 1. c. 545. Pine barrens, N. Carolina to Florida. 



* * Spikes thicker or densely-flowered ; the fruits crowded, mostly overlapping each other or 

 imbricated: bracts inconspicuous, not exceeding the flowers: root perennial. 



) Pubescence short, sparse and hirsute or scabrous : spikes dense, strict, naked at base or more 

 or less peduncled : stem erect. 



V. angustifolia, Michx. 1. c. Stem and spikes often simple, a foot or two high : leaves 

 linear or lanceolate, coarsely rugose-veiny, serrate, tapering into nearly sessile base : 

 corolla purple or lilac (3 lines long). V. rugosa, Willd. Enum. 633. V. simplex, Lehin. 

 Pugill. i. 37. Dry or sandy ground, Massachusetts (Amherst) to Wisconsin and Florida. 



V. hastata, L. Tall, 3 to 6 feet high : leaves oblong-lanceolate, gradually acuminate, 

 coarsely or incisely serrate, petioled, some of the lower commonly hastate-3-lobed at 

 base : spikes numerous in a panicle : corolla blue. V. panicuhtta, Lam. ; Bot. Mag. 1. 1102 ; 

 name applied to the form which wants the 3-lobcd leaves ; the better but the later name 

 for the species. Canada and Saskatchewan to Florida, New Mexico, and (according to 

 Torrey in Wilkes Exped. Bot.) California: chiefly waste grounds and road-sides. Var. 

 pinnulijlda, Schauer ( V. pinnatifida, Lam.), is a probable hybrid, of occasional occurrence. 



-i -H- Pubescence softer and denser, commonly cinereous or canescent : spikes mostly sessile or 

 leafy -bracted at base. 



V. stricta, Vent. Erect, rather stout, a foot or two high : leaves cinereous with dense 

 soft-hirsute-villous pubescence, thickish, rugose-veiny, ovate or oblong, nearly sessile, very 

 sharply and densely mostly doubly serrate, rarely incised : spikes comparatively thick, 

 dense both in flower and fruit, canescent : bracts subulate-setaceous, equalling the calyx: 

 corolla blue (4 or 5 lines long): nutlets linear. Hort. Cels, t. 53. V. riyens, Michx. Fl. 

 ii. 14. V. cuneifolia, Raf. in Med. Rep. N. Y. xi. 260 ? Barrens and prairies, Ohio to 

 Dakota, Texas, and New Mexico, where a hybrid occurs between it and V. bracteosa. 

 V. lanceolata, Beck in Am. Jour. Sci. xiv. 118, may be one of the hybrids between 

 V. stricta and V. anyustifolia which occur at St. Louis. 



V. prostrata, R. Br. Diffusely spreading, at length much branched, from soft-villous 

 to hirsute: leaves obovate or oblong, with cuneate base tapering into a margined petiole, 

 veiny, acutely incised and serrate, often 3-5-cleft : spikes solitary or somewhat clustered, 

 elongated, hirsute or villous, dense when in flower : bracts subulate, shorter than the 

 calyx: corolla violet or blue, 2 lines long: nutlets oblong. Ait. Kew. ed. 2, iv. 41; 

 Schauer, 1. c. ; Gray, Bot. Calif, i. 009. V. lasiostachys, Link; Hook. & Am. Bot. Beech. 

 156. Plains and open grounds, throughout W. California. Very variable. 



* * Spikes (either thickish or slender) sessile and bracteose, i. e. the rigid and somewhat foliaceous 

 bracts, or some of them, surpassing the flowers: root annual or becoming lignescent-perennial. 



V. bracteosa, Michx. Much branched from the base, diffuse or decumbent, hirsute: 

 . leaves cuneate-oblong or cuneate-obovate, narrowed mostly into a short margined petiole, 

 pinnately incised or 3-cleft, and coarsely dentate: spikes terminating the branches, thick: 

 lowest bracts often pinnatifid or incised ; the others lanceolate, acuminate, entire, rigid, 

 sparsely hispid, all exceeding the flowers : corolla purplish or blue, very small : nutlets 

 with a broad and strongly convex or 2-facetted granulate-scabrous commissure. Fl. ii. 

 13; Hook. Bot. Mag. t. 2!)10. V. sr/narrosa, Roth, Catal. Bot. iii. 3. F. ww.sw/s ? Chapm. 

 Fl. 307, not HBK. Prairies and open waste grounds, Wisconsin to W. Florida, and west 

 to Oregon, California, and Arizona. 



Var. brevibracteata, a peculiar form, with dense spikes, most of the bracts little 

 longer than the flowers, and the uppermost barely equalling them, in fruit all ascending or 

 appressed. W. Texas to Arizona. (Adjacent Mex.) 



V. canescens, HBK. Much branched from the base, ascending or erect, canescent- 

 hirsute : leaves oblong-lanceolate and cuneate-obovate, contracted into a margined base, 

 rigid, sharply toothed, incised, or some of them pinnatifid : spikes solitary, filiform, 

 mostly loosely-flowered : bracts subulate, the lower almost foliifonn and more or less ex- 



