334 VERBENACE^. Phnjma. 



titute of any coats. Fruit fleshy-capsular. Seed consisting solely of a large 

 embryo, which begins germination at or before dehiscence: radicle villous, inferior: 

 cotyledons large, amygdaloid, conduplicate longitudinally: plumule conspicuous. 

 Flowers glomerate (inflorescence centrifugal) ; the capituliform clusters variously 

 disposed. 



11. AVICENNIA. Calyx of .5 imbricated concave sepals. Corolla with short campan- 

 ulate tube, and slightly irregular 4-parted spreading limb. Stamens 4, somewliat unequal 

 and exserted. Style short or none. Stigmas 2. Fruit comjjressed, 2-valved. 



1. PHRYMA, L. Lopseed. (An unexplained name, substituted by Lin- 

 naeus for Leptostadaja, Mitch, in Act. Phys.-Med. Nat. Cur. .viii. 212, 1748.) — 

 Single species. 



P. Leptostachya, L. Perennial herb, 2 to 4 feet high, slender, somewhat pubescent : 

 leaves ovate, acuminate, coarsely serrate ; lower ones long-petioled : flowers small and 

 inconspicuous, sessile in slender and filiform at length much elongated terminal spikes, 

 purplish, each in tlie axil of a setaceous bract and subtended by a pair of minute bractlets, 

 at length strictly reflexed ; the fructiferous calyx, detaching at maturity, apt to adhere to 

 fleece and clothing by the hooked tips of the awn-like teeth in the manner of a bur. — 

 Gaertn. Fr. t. 75; Lam. 111. t. 516; Schaucr in DC. Prodr. xi. 520. — Moist and open woods, 

 Canada to Florida and Missouri: fl. summer. (Japan to Nepal.) 



2. PRIVA, Adans. (Name of unknown derivation.) — Homely perennial 

 herbs of warm climates; with petioled coarsely serrate leaves, and terminal spikes 

 of small dull flowers, in summer. 



P. echinata, Juss. Somewhat pubescent : leaves ovate, somewhat cordate : flowers 

 alternate in the slender spike: fruiting calyx hirsute with small hooked hairs: fruit ovate, 

 4-angled, splitting into 2 nutlets, each 2-sceded, spiny-toothed on the back. — Jaeq. Obs. 

 t. 24; Sloane, Jam. t. 110; Chapm. Fl. 200. — S. Florida. (Trop. Amer.) 



3. STACHYTARPHETA, Vahl. (Name formed of o-rax^j, spike, and 

 Tap^etos, dense, therefore Stachytarpheia, originally misprinted by mistaking the 

 penultimate letter. Abbreviated to Stachytarpha by Link and some succeeding 

 authors.) — Tropical herbs or undershrubs, chiefly American; with mostly ser- 

 rate and sometimes alternate leaves, and dense terminal spikes ; the flowers, or 

 at least the fruiting calyx, often half immersed in longitudinal excavations of the 

 stout rhachis, subtended each by a small and usually paleaceous bract. 



S. Jamaicensis, Vahl, Annual, but suffrutescent, glabrate : leaves oval or oblong, 

 coarsely serrate, tapering into the petiole : spike as thiek as a goose-quill, 6 to 10 inches 

 long: bracts approsscd, striate, aristulate-acuminate : flowers sunk in deep excavations of 

 the thickening rhachis : calyx becoming compressed and 2-cleft : corolla blue, its border 

 4 lines broad. — Enum. i. 206 (Sloane, Jam. t. 107; Desc. Ant. vi. t. 692) ; Chapm. Fl. 

 308. Verbena Jamaicensis, L. — S. Florida. (W. Ind. to Guiana.) 



4. BOtrCHEA, Cham. (Charles and Peter Bouche, Berlin gardeners.) — 

 Between the preceding and following genera, American, African, and Indian : 

 flowers not immersed in the slender rhachis of the spike ; in summer. 



§ 1. Leaves petioled and serrate (as in the genus generally) : flowers small. 



B. Ehrenbergii, Cham. Annual, a span to 2 feet high, barely puberulent, brachiately 

 branched: leaves ovate or oval: spikes short: flowers crowded: corolla little exserted, 

 bluish, .3 lines long: tip of fruit exserted from the shortish tube of calyx. — Linn. vii. 253; 

 Schauer in DC. Prodr. xi. 558 ; Torr. in Bot. Mex. Bound. 126. Verbena prismatica, Jacq. 

 Ic. Rar. t. 208. — S. Arizona, Thiirber, Wright. (Mex. & W. Ind. to Venezuela.) 



