218 VERBESACEM. [Vebbena. 



ribbed ; lobes 5, short. Corolla-tube straight or curved ; limb oblique, 

 somewhat 2-lipped; lobes 5, oblong, obtuse or retuse. Stamens 

 didynamous, included ; anthers ovate, 2-celled, cells subparallel. 

 Ovary more or less 4-lobed and sometimes 4-celled even when in 

 flower, style short, stigma obscurely 2-lobed ; ovules 4, attached 

 laterally near the base of each cell. Fruit dry, included in the calyx, 

 separating into 4 oblong pyrenes. — Species about 80, in temperate and 

 tropical regions, mostly American. 



V. officinalis, Linn. Sp. PI. 20 ; Ttoxh. Hort. Beng. 4; Royle III. 299; 

 F. B. I. iv, 565; Watt E. D.; Collett Fl. Siml. 379; Prain Beng. PL 826; 

 Cooke Fl. Bomb. ii. 437. — Vervain. 



An erect more or less pubescent perennial herb. Stems 1-3 ft. high, 

 decumbent at the base, branched 4-sided puberulous. Leaves 2-4 in. 

 long, variously lobed, narrowed to the base ; lower ones stalked, 

 pinnatified or coarsely toothed, more or less pubescent and usually 

 hoary on the nerves beneath ; upper sessile, usually 3-partite. Flowers 

 ± in. long, sessile in dense bracteate heads which elongate as the fruit 

 ripens into slender spikes up to 10 in. long ; bracts ovate, acute. Calyx 

 twice as long as the bracts and half as long as the corolla-tube, 

 minutely 5-toothed, glandular-hairy. Corolla blue or lilac, hairy ; limb 

 spreading, about | in. diam., lobes subquadrate, throat hairy. Fruit 

 dry, pyrenes ribbed. 



On waste ground and also as a weed in gardens, mostly along the northern 

 portion of the area. Disteib. Plains of Punjab and Bengal, and up to 

 7,000 ft. on the Himalaya from Kashmir eastwards ; also in all temperate 

 and subtropical regions, but not wild in America. The leaves and root 

 are used medicinally by the people of the Punjab. The many varieties 

 of the cultivated garden verbena, so extensively grown in Europe as 

 well as in India, are hybrids and are supposed to be chiefly related to 

 V. chamosdrifolia, a species indigenous in S. America. 



4. CALLICARPA, Linn.; Fl. Brit. Jnd. iv, 566. 



Shrubs or trees ; young branches stellately hairy. Leaves opposite, 

 rarely ternately whorled, toothed or subentire. Flowers in axillary 

 cvmes which are shorter than the leaves ; bracts linear, inconspicuous. 

 Calyx very small, campanulate ; limb minutely 4-lobed, not enlarged 

 in fruit. Corolla small, tubular, subsymmetric, purple or red ; 

 lobes 4, subquadrate, spreading. Stamens 4, equal ; anthers exserted, 

 2-celled, glandular. Ovary imperfectly 2-celled, style linear ; stigma 

 dilated, obscurely bifid, ovules 2 in. each cell. Fruit a small globose 

 drupe ; pyrenes 4, or fewer by suppression, 1-seeded. — Species 30, 

 widely distributed in the tropical and subtropical regions of both 

 hemispheres. 



