LABIATAE. 211 



Plagiobothrys tenellus (Nutt.) Gray. Annual, with usually many stems 

 from the base, 5-20 cm. high, rather soft-hairy throughout; radical leaves in 

 a rosette, oblong-linear or lanceolate, 5-20 mm. long; cauline few, lanceolate, 

 5-10 mm. long; spike loose, leafy at base; fruiting calyx 3 mm. long, hispid 

 with yellow hairs, the lobes lanceolate; nutlets silvery grey, shining, prominently 

 keeled and papillate, somewhat cross-shaped because of the constrictions at 

 the base and apex, incurved, hollowed on the ventral face, with a projecting 

 process which attaches it to the gynobase. Sandy soil in the warmer valleys. 



Family 79. VERBENACEAE. VERBENA FAMILY. 



Herbs or shrubs, not aromatic; leaves opposite; flowers per- 

 fect; corolla either 2-lipped or irregular; stamens 4, didynamous; 

 style single, terminal ; stigma entire or 2-lobed ; ovary not lobed ; 

 fruit 2-4-celled, dry or drupaceous, usually splitting when ripe 

 into as many 1 -seeded indehiscent nutlets; endosperm scant or 



none. 



310. VERBENA. 



Herbs; flowers sessile, in single or panicled bracteolate spikes; 

 calyx tubular, 5-toothed, one tooth often shorter; corolla salver- 

 form, more or less unequally 5-cleft; stamens included, the upper 

 pair occasionally without anthers; style slender; stigma mostly 

 2-lobed ; fruit splitting into 4 seed-like nutlets. 



Spikes narrow, dense; bracts short. V. hastata. 



Spikes loose; bracts exceeding the flowers. V. bracteosa. 



Verbena hastata L. Perennial, erect, 30-90 cm. high, simple below the 

 inflorescence, rough-puberulent throughout; stems 4-sided; leaves oblong or 

 broadly lanceolate, acute or acuminate, coarsely serrate, 6-12 cm. long, short- 

 petioled; spikes numerous, clustered at the summit of the stem, slender, 5-15 

 cm. long; bracts shorter than the calyx; corolla blue, 3 mm. broad. In moist 

 places. 



Verbena bracteosa Michx. Branches prostrate or spreading, 15-30 cm. 

 long, rough-hairy throughout, the root often becoming woody; leaves oblong 

 or obovate, cuneate at base, pinnately 3-cleft, coarsely dentate, 1-3 cm. long; 

 petiole short, margined; spikes terminal, 1-10 cm. long; upper bracts entire, 

 lanceolate, acuminate, becoming rigid; the lower somewhat cleft, all exceeding 

 the flowers; corolla blue, 4 mm. long; anthers without appendages. Common 

 in dry ground and inclined to become a weed. 



Family 80. LABIATAE. MINT FAMILY. 



Mostly aromatic herbs with 4-sided stems; leaves simple, 

 opposite; corolla more or less 2-lipped, the upper lip 2-lobed or 

 sometimes entire, the lower 3-lobed; stamens on the corolla-tube, 

 didynamous or diandrous; style usually 2-lobed at the apex; 

 ovary deeply 4-lobed or parted; fruit of 4 seed-like nutlets or 

 akenes, each with one erect seed ; endosperm mostly none. 



