Ferbetia. VERBENACE.E. 335 



§ 2. Leaves sessile or nearly so and entire : spikes lax : tube of (purple or white) 

 corolla exserted, and limb G to 9 lines broad : fruit somewhat shorter than the 

 narrow cylindrical calyx-tube. Peculiar species. 



B. spatulata, Torr. Suffrutoscent, puberuk'nt : brandies terete, very leafy : leaves 

 thickisli, obovate, entire, obtuse, mucronate (D lines long) ; upper ones passing into similar 

 foliaceous bracts; uppermost lanceolate, about equalling tiie calyx. — Bot. Mex. Bound. 

 12G. — S. W. Texas, canon of the Kio Grande, near Mount Carmel, Parri/. 



B. linifolia, Gray. Fastigiately and alternately branched from a perennial or suffrutes- 

 cent base, a foot or two higli, glabrous and smooth: branches rigid, striate-angled and 

 sulcate, very leafy : leaves lineardanceolate, entire, acute at both ends, 1-nerved ; upper- 

 most passing into bracts of tlie loose spike: upper bracts subulate, much shorter than the 

 slightly pedicellate striate caly.x : throat of corolla funnelform. — Am. Jour. Sci. ser. 2, 

 xvi. 98 ; Torr. 1. c. — Dry bed or banks of the San Pedro and Rio Grande, S. W. Texas, 

 Wri'jld, Schutt. 



3. VEPIBENA, Tourn. Vervain. (Roman name of a sacred herb, of 

 Celtic derivation.) — A large genus of herbs (or a few S. American species suf- 

 fruticose), chiefly American, some mere weeds, some ornamental; fl. summer. 

 Spontaneous hybrids aboiuid, not here to be described ; many are noted by En- 

 gelmann in Am. Jour. Sci. xlvi. (18d.')) 99. 



§ 1. Flowers small or comparatively so, in narrow spikes: anthers unappen- 

 daged. 



* Spikes filiform, with the flowers or at least the fruits scattered, naked, and the inconspicuous 

 bracts shorter than the calyx. 



•\r- Leaves 1-2-pinnateIy cleft or incised, sessile or nearly so. 



V. OFFICINALIS, L. Annual, slender: stem glabrous or nearly so : leaves minutely strigu- 

 lose-pubescent, chiefly once or twice pinnatitid or o-o-cleft ; lower obovate, sometimes only 

 incised, narrowed below into a tapering base ; uppermost lanceolate : spikes very slender, 

 solitary or panicled : bracts shorter than calyx : lobes of the small purplish corolla usually 

 less than a line long. — FI. Dan. t. 028 ; Lam. 111. t. 17. V. ojficiiialis & V. ftpuria, L. 

 Spec. i. 18. — Road-sides and old fields. New Jersey to Texas, Arizona, and S. California. 

 (Nat. from Eu., &c.) 



V. XUtha, Lehm. Stouter and taller (2 or o feet high, from a perennial root?), hirsute- 

 pubescent : leaves more or less canescent, incisely pinnatifid or laciniate, or some of the 

 lower o-parted ; lobes coarsely toothed : flowers more crowded in the strict sjjikes, larger : 

 bracts equalling the calyx: lobes of tlie purple or blue corolla commonly a line and a half 

 long. — Ind. Sem. Ilamb. 1834, & Linn. x. Literb. 115. V. sln)/osa, Hook. & Arn. Comp. Bot. 

 Mag. i. 170, not Cham. V. Luafuna, Wii\\). Rep. iv. 23; Scliauer in DC. Prodr. xi. 547. 

 V. cceruka, Vatke in App. Ind. Sem. hort. Berol. 1870, 1. V. sororiu, Don, Prodr. Fl. Nepal. 

 104, & Brit. Fl. Gard. t. 202, is perhaps the same species. — Louisiana and Texas, southern 

 borders of California. (Me.x.) 



-1— •»— Leaves merely serrate, or somelimes sparingly incised: root perennial. 



V. urticaefolia, L. From ndnutely hirsute-pubescent to almost glabrous, 3 to 5 feet 

 high : leaves tliin, petioled, ovate to oblong-lanceolate, acuminate or acute, evenly or 

 doubly serrate : spikes slender-filiform, panicled, more or less sparsely flowered : bracts 

 ovate, acuminate, shorter tiian tlie short calyx : corolla a line or two, and lobes only half 

 a line long, white, sometimes bluish or purplish. — Waste or open grounds, Canada to 

 Texas, &c. (Trop. Am.) 



V. polystachya, HBK. Less tall, more scabrous, sometimes hirsute or hispid, panicu- 

 lately branched: leaves from oblong to broadly lanceolate (1 or 2 inches long), sessile by a 

 narrowed base or sliort-petioled, obtuse or acute, incisely serrate, occasionally somewhat 

 lobed : spikes thicker and denser than in the preceding. — Gray, Bot. Calif, i. 008. V. poly- 

 stnrhi/n, hiserrata, & vcroniaefulln ? HBK. Nov. Gen. & Spec. ii. 274, &c. V. Caroliniensis, 

 Dill." Fdth. ii. 407, t. 301, fig. 388: therefore V. Carolina, L. Spec. ed. 2, ii. 29, but not in 

 Carolina. V. Carolinlntui, Spreng. Syst. ii. 748; Hook. & Arn. Bot. Beech. 156; Schauer 

 in DC. I. 0. 546. California and Arizona: rare. (Mex.) 



