NATURAL ORDER VERBENACEZ#. 
Tribe—V ERBENEZ. 
PLATE XIV.— Vitex A gnus-castus. Linn. Woods. Grenier and 
Godron. 
Generic.—/f uit a kind of drupe, apparently formed by the enclosure 
of four nuts (or fewer by abortion) in a dry corky mass, which is encased 
in a hard globular shell. Stamens four, exsert, didynamous. Corolla 
composed of a short tube, with a five-lobed, bilabiate limb, and the 
terminal lobe of the lower lip the largest. Calyx short, five-toothed. 
Speciric.—Inflorescence a long panicle, the flowers being gathered 
together in whorls distant from each other. Stamens hairy at the base 
of the filament. Corolla violet or sometimes white, having a tuft of 
white hairs at the base of the inferior lobe of the lower lip. Leaves 
digitate of from five to seven lanceolate lobes, whitish below. Growth 
that of a woody spreading shrub from four to seven feet high. The 
whole plant has a pungent, aromatic smell, which is especially developed 
in the fruit. 
EXPLANATION OF PLate XIV.—Plate XIV. represents Vitex Agnus- 
castus, a plant long considered as an emblem of chastity, from the times 
even of the Greeks and Romans. Fig. 1, a stamen during the emission 
of pollen, showing the hairy base of the filament. Fig. 2, a flower. Fig. 
3, a cross-section of the fruit, showing the four ovules, one of which is 
imperfect. 
Remarks.—This natural order is one of the smallest European ones, 
only including, according to many authors, three or four species from 
two genera. The best known representative is Verbena officinalis, 
which, with the plant here figured, was held among the ancients of many 
parts of Europe as one of the most sacred herbs, and has been offered 
as a charm for ailments up to a very recent period. None of the plants 
belonging to this order have a place in British Pharmacopeias. Vitex 
Agnus-castus grows in two or three other localities along the French 
shore of the Mediterranean, but becomes more abundant as one moves east- 
ward through Italy, Sicily, and the Levant. It is mentioned as growing 
in Terai, south of Sikkim, by Dr. Hooker, (Himalaya Journal, vol. i, 
