306 BURMA, ITS PEOPLE AXD PRODUCTIONS. 



And more especially Tvas it supposed to act as a love charm, wlicncc its introduction 

 in Carm. I. 19, where Horace describes his love for Glycera : 



" Hie vivTim mihi cfespitem, tic 



Verbenas, pueri, ponite ; thm-aquc 

 Bimi cum patent meri ; 



Mactatii veniot lenior hostia." 



Still more explicit as regards the magic po-wers attributed to tliis lierb is the 

 invocation scene in Virgil's eighth Eclogue, where Alphesibojus says : 



" Effer aquatn, et molli cinge ha;c altaria vitta, 

 Verbenasque adole pingues et mascula thura. 

 Conjugis ut magicis sanos avertere sacris 

 Experiar sensus." Ecloga Till. G4. 



V. BOXAEIEXSIS, L. (il.). 



S. isPEEijjr, Roxb. (M.). 



SiEErTmr, Eoxhurffh. 



STACHTTARrnETA, VuM. 



S. rN'DicA, Vahl. (K.). Kamorta. 



S. MuiABiLis, Vahl. (M.). 



A plant with variegated scarlet flowers in terminal spikes. 



S. UETic.EFOLiA, Sims. (M.). 



Ovules ascending from the lasc of the cells. Flowers without Iractlets. Fruit a drupe. 



Laxiaxa, Linnceus. 



Flowers in heads or cymes. Drupe of 2 1 -celled pyrenes. C'tihj.c veiy shortly 

 tubular, or almost bell -shaped, obscurely 4-toothed. Corolla slightly widened at tlio 

 throat. Stamens 4, didynamous, inserted and included in the corolla-tube. Anther- 

 cells dehiscing longitudinally. Ovary 2-celled, with a solitary erect ovule in each cell. 



*L. MIXTA, L. A Brazilian plant cultivated in Burma, 



and in some places become feral. 



Branchlets usually aculeate along the corners, nuts, if not entii'ely, at least at 

 the base separated by a spongy mass. 



Of tliis plant Thwaites rernarlis that it "appears to have found in Ceylon a soil 

 and climate exactly suited to its growth, for it now covers thousands of acres with 

 its dense masses of foliage, taking complete possession of land when cultivation has 

 been neglected or abandoned, preventing the growth of any other plant, and even 

 destroying small trees, the tops of which its subscandent stems are able to reach. 

 The fruit of this plant is so acceptable to frugivorous birds of all kinds, that through 

 their instrumentality it is spreading rapidly, to the complete exclusion, in sjjots 

 where it becomes established, of the indigenous vegetation." — Enumoratio plantarum 

 Zeylania3, Preface, p. vii. 



L. ALBA, Mill. JIaulmain (feral _;?(/(• iTason). 



L. Indira, Itoxb. 

 L. nirea, var. niutaliilis, Mason. 



Flowers small, white, yellow at the throat, aiTangcd in dense axillary heads, 

 elongating into spikes. Mason describes the flowers as yellow when they first open, 

 but soon changing to a rose colour. Kurz, quoting Mason, says " probably Ava,'' but 

 Mason says " Maulmain." 



L. ODORATA, L. (M.). 



L. ACULEATA, Wall. (M.). 



