334 VERBENACEiE. Plmjma. 



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 sHghtly irregular 4-partod spreading limb. Stamens 4, somewliat unequal 

 and e.xserted. Style short or none. Stigmas 2. Fruit compressed, 2-valved. 



1. PHRl^MA, L. LopsEED. (An unexplained name, substituted by Lin- 

 nreus for Leptostachya, 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 the 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 tcetli in the manner of a bur. — 

 Gfertn. 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. PPlf "V A, Adans. (Name of unknown derivation.) — Homely perennial 

 herbs of warm climates ; with jietioled 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-seeded, spiny-toothed on the back. — Jacq. Obs. 

 t. 24; Sloane, Jam. t. 110; Chapm. Fl. 206. — S. Florida. (Trop. Amer.) 



3. STACHYTARPHETA, Yahl. (Name formed of azayvg, spike, and 

 /juO '^f''("yi''>5 tlense, written Stachyfarpha by Link and some succeeding authors, that it 

 ^~^^ might better accord with the etymology.) — Tropical herbs or undershrubs, chiefly 



American ; with mostly serrate and sometimes alternate leaves, and dense ter- 

 minal 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 suffrutcscent, glabrate: leaves oval or oblong, 

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

 long : bracts appressed, striate, aristulatc-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. Fh 

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



4. BOtJCHEA, 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 cxserted, 

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

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

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



