EHBETIACEAE. 309 



Sebesten Sebestena (L.) Britton, Scarlet Cordia, Geiger Tree, Florid- 

 ian and West Indian, an evergreen small tree, with rough ovate entire or 

 slightly toothed leaves 3'-6' long, clustered orange or flame-colored flowers 

 about V/ long, the corolla with a funnelform tube and spreading lobes, the 

 fruit a white drupe nearly an inch long, is much planted for ornament. 

 [Cordia Sebestena L.] 



Family 7. VERBENACEAE J. St. Hil. 



Vervain Family. 



Herbs, shrubs or some tropical genera trees, with opposite verticillate 

 or rarely alternate leaves, and perfect irregular, or sometimes regular 

 flowers, in spikes, racemes, cymes or panicles. Calyx inferior, mostly per- 

 sistent, usually 4-5-lobed or 4-5-cleft. Corolla regular, or 2-lipped, the 

 tube usually cylindric and the limb 4^5-cleft. Stamens 4, didynamous, 

 rarely only 2, or as many as the corolla-lobes, inserted on the corolla and 

 alternate with its lobes; anthers 2-celled, the sacs longitudinally dehiscent. 

 Ovary superior, 2-4-celled (rarely 8-10-celled), composed of 2 carpels, 

 each carpel with 2 anatropous or amphitropous ovule3, thus in 4-celled 

 ovaries 1 ovule in each cavity; style terminal; stig-mas 1 or 2. Fruit dry, 

 separating at maturity into 2-4 nutlets, or a drupe containing the 2-4 nut- 

 lets. Endosperm little or none, or rarely fleshy; embryo straight. About 

 75 genera and 1300 species, of wide geographic distribution. 



A. Ovules 1 in each cavity of the ovary. 

 Inflorescence centripetal. 



Flowers in spikes, heads or spike-like racemes ; herbs or shrubs. 

 Fruit of 2 or 4 dry nutlets. 

 Stamens 4. 



Fruit of 4 nutlets. 1. Verbena. 



Fruit of 2 nutlets. 



Calvx not inflated. 2. Lippia. 



Calyx inflated. 3. Priva. 



Stamens 2 ; nutlets sunken in the axis of slender 



spikes. 4. Valerianodes. 



Fruit fleshy, drupaceous. 5. Lantana. 



Flowers in long racemes ; shrubs or trees. 



Drupe subtended by the calyx ; stigma 2-lobed. 6. Githarexylum. 



Drupe enclosed by the calyx ; stigma 4-lobed. 7. Duranta. 



Inflorescence centrifugal, cymose or cymose-paniculate. 

 Corolla irregular, its limb oblique ; stamens long-exserted. 



Spiny shrub. 8. Tolknvieria. 



Unarmed shrubs or herbs. 9. Clerodendron. 



Corolla regular, small. 10. CalUcarpa. 



B. Ovules 2 in each ovary-cavity ; swamp trees. 11. Avicennia. 



1. VERBENA L. 



Herbs (some exotic species shrubby), mostly with opposite leaves, and 

 bracted flowers, in terminal spikes. Calyx usually tubular, 5-angled, unequally 

 5-toothed. Corolla salverform or funnelform, the limb spreading. Connective 

 of the anthers unappendaged, or sometimes provided with a gland. Ovary 4- 

 celled; ovule 1 in each cavity; style usually short, 2-lobed at the summit, one 

 of the lobes stigmatie. Fruit mostly enclosed by the calyx, at length separat- 

 ing into 4 1-seeded linear or linear-oblong crustaceous nutlets. [Latin name 

 of a sacred herb.] A'bout 100 species, natives of America or a single one 

 indigenous in the Mediterranean region. Type species: Verbeim officinalis L. 



