320 



VERBENACEAE. 



1. Aviceimia nitida Jaeq. Black 

 Mangrove. (Fig. 343.) A tree, in Ber- 

 muda up to about 45° high, with shallowly 

 fissured dark scaly bark, orange-red within. 

 Young twigs finely pubescent. Leaves pu- 

 bescent when young, soon becoming gla- 

 brous above, oblong or oblong-laneeolate, 

 li'-3i' long, obtuse or apiculate at the 

 apex, finely canescent beneath, narrowed at 

 the base into short petioles; panicles l'-2' 

 long; corolla 5"-7" broad, its lobes 

 rounded; capsule oblong or elliptic, l'-2' 

 long, light green, slightly pubescent. 



Common along the borders of salt water 

 lagoons and in saline swamps, which it some- 

 times completely fills. Native. Southern 

 United States and West Indies. Flowers from 

 spring to autumn. Its fruit doubtless reached 

 Bermuda by floating. Its wood is heavy, hard, 

 and dark brown, durable in contact with the 

 ground. 



Tectona grandis L., Teak, East Indian, was represented in the collection 

 at the Agricultural. Station in 1913, by a vigorous young plant. It is a large 

 tree with very valuable wood; its large, opposite leaves are oval, short-petioled, 

 pointed, whitish canescent beneath with stellate hairs, shining above. The 

 small whitish flowers are in large terminal panicles, the funnelform corolla 

 with a 5-cleft limb, the fruit a 4-celled drupe, about V thick, nearly globular. 



Vitex Agnus-castus L., Chaste-tree, of southern Europe and western 

 Asia, a shrub up to 9° tall with palmately compound, opposite p.etioled leaves 

 of 5 or 7 narrowly lanceolate, short-stalked acuminate leaflets 3'-4' long, 

 dark green above, whitish-puberulent beneath, the small white to blue flowers 

 in terminal narrow interrupted racemes or panicles, the corolla 3"-4" long, 

 the stamens and style exserted, is grown for ornament. 



Siphonanthus indica L., Siphonanthus, East Indian, a glabrous her- 

 baceous perennial, with virgate stems up to 12° high, verticillate lanceolate 

 entire leaves 4'-8' long, sessile or nearly so, the flowers in peduncled cymes, the 

 calyx ^'-f broad, deeply 5-lobed, the white or yellow corolla with a slender 

 tube 3'-4' long and a spreading 5-lobed limb about 1' broad, the stamens and 

 style exserted, is grown for its interest. [Clerodendroii Siphonanthus R. Br.] 



Petraea volubilis Jacq., Purple Wreath, South American, occasionally 

 planted for ornament, is a vine, 15° long or more, with opposite entire rough- 

 ish short-petioled leaves, elliptic to obovate, 3'-4' long; its flowers are borne 

 in terminal racemes often 1° long, the slender pedicels about 1' long, the 5 

 linear-oblong blunt veiny purple or lilac sepals spread widely and persist 

 after the smaller, funnelform corolla has fallen. 



Petraea arbdrea H.B.K., Tree Petraea, also South American, recorded by 

 Jones as grown in Bermuda, is tree-like, with foliage similar to that of the 

 Purple Wreath, but the blue flowers are in axillary racemes. 



