312 



VERBENACEAE. 



compressed and 2-wiiiged, 2-4-toothed or 2-4-cleft. Corolla-tube cylindric, the 

 iimb oblique, somewhat 2-lipped, 4-cleft. Stamens 4, didynamous; anthers 

 ovate, not appendaged, the sacs nearly parallel. Ovary 2-celled; ovules 1 in 

 each cavity; style short; stigma oblique or recurved. Fruit dry, with a mem- 

 branous exocarp, at length separating into 4 nutlets. [Named in honor of 

 Auguste Lippi, 1678-1703, a French naturalist.] About 100 species, most 

 abundant in tropical America. Type species : Lippia americana L. 



1. Lippia nodiflora (L.) 

 Michx. Cape-weed. Godet's-weed. 

 (Fig. 332.) Minutely and rather 

 densely puberulent, creeping, or 

 the branches ascending, l°-3° long. 

 Leaves thickish, spatulate, oblance- 

 olate, or obovate, h"-2l" long, 3"- 

 10" wide, mostly obtuse, narrowed 

 into a cuneate entire base, sharply 

 serrate above the middle; heads at 

 length cylindric and i'-l' long; 

 corolla purple to white. [Verbena 

 nodiflora L.; Lippia reptans of 

 Jones and Lefroy.] 



Common on hillsides and in dry 

 soil generally, one of the most abun- 

 dant native plants. Southern United 

 States, West Indies, tropical conti- 

 nental America and Old World 

 tropics. Its seeds probably brought 

 to Bermuda by a bird or on the 

 wind. Flowers from spring to 

 autumn. 



Lippia micromera Schauer, West Indian, a low shrub with very small 

 obovate toothed leaves, very fragi^ant when crushed, and small whitish flowers 

 in terminal heads, is grown in gardens. The plant is recorded as native by 

 Lefroy, but this appears to be erroneous, and no other author mentions it 

 as Bermudian. 



Lippia triphylla (L'Her.) Kuntze, Lemon Verbena, South American, 

 commonly grown in gardens for its fragrant foliage, is a low slender shrub 

 with narrowly lanceolate toothed leaves l'-3' long, and very small, whitish 

 flowers in terminal clustered spikes. [L. citriodora HBK.; Aloysia citriodora 

 Pers.; Verbena triphylla L'Her.] 



3. PRIVA Adans. 

 Perennial caulescent herbs, the leaves opposite, membranous, toothed, the 

 flowers in slender peduncled spikes. Calyx-tube 5-ribbed; lobes 5. Corolla 

 salverform, its tube straight or incurved, slightly dilated above, its limb 

 spreading, oblique, slightly 2-lipped, with 5 short lobes. Stamens 4, didyn- 

 amous, included; anthers with parallel or slightly divergent ascs. Ovary 

 2-celled, each cavity with more or less well developed septa. Ovules 2, or by 

 abortion 1, at the base of each cavity. Fruit enclosed in the calyx, separating 

 into 2 nutlets. [Name unexplained.] About 10 species of tropical distribu- 

 tion, the following typical. 



