120 LANTANA CAilMAKA. 



cultivated with, perfect success in cooler latitudes, becoming in this case 

 deciduous ; a further reduction of temperature, short of actual frost, inducing an 

 herbaceous character, the stems dying down to the ground annually. Thus the 

 Cuphea strigillosa, and the Bouvardias, if kept in the temperature of the stove, 

 continue in growth, and preserve their foliage during the whole year ; in a 

 cool greenhouse from which frost is excluded, they become deciduous, losing 

 their leaves in winter but preserving the vitality of their stems; whilst in the 

 open air the roots alone are able to resist the cold and wet of our winters. 



It is on the same principle that the Lantanas, though less hardy than the 

 plants just referred to, may be made available for decorating the beds or borders 

 in summer ; and for this purpose they are likely to become established favorites. 

 Some of the species are straggling in their growth, but many of them combine 

 the, in general, free-flowering character of the genus, with a neat compact 

 habit ; and of this number is the plant we have selected for our illustration. 



The leading features of the genus are a square stem (in L. Selloviana it is 



round), usually very hairy, and often covered with short recurved spines, the 



presence or absence of which assists in distinguishing the species ; and opposite 



oval-pointed leaves (sometimes in three's), toothed at their edges, more or less 



wrinkled, and generally rough on both surfaces. The hairs to which this 



roughness is due appear under the microscope to be seated on a transparent 



gland, which probably secretes a fluid, to which the peculiar and sometimes 



unpleasant odour of the species is owing. Flowers produced in the axils of the 



leaves, in hemispherical or oblong heads, seated upon a conical receptacle. In 



most of the species there is a small bract beneath each blossom, such as is 



shewn in our figure. The corolla is tubular, slightly curved, with a spreading 



four-lobed limb, and inserted in a short, minute, tubular, calyx. The stamens 



are four in number, two of them being seated just within the mouth, the 



others about the middle of the tube, as in the Verbenas. The style is of microscopic 



dimensions, terminated by a hooked stigma, and is just such an apparatus as 



fairy fingers might wield, could we suppose the elfin world to occupy itself 



with the mysteries of crochet-work. The seed vessel ripens into a fleshy, dark 



purple drupe, or berry, containing a hard, two-celled nut ; one of the cells is 



often more or less obliterated. The more tender species do not ripen seed 



unless grown at a stove temperature ; Selloviana, delicatissima, grandiflora, and 



some others, however, produce it in abundance. In the Yerbena, which is veiy 



closely allied to Lantana, the fruit consists of four cohering seeds, covered 



by a thin shell, which separates when ripe, and leaves the nuts exposed; this 



feature, and the five-lobes of the corolla, constitute the chief differences between 



the two genera. 



The Lantanas are, with two or three exceptions, peculiar to tropical parts of the 



