VERBENACEAE. 



333 



VITEX. Chaste Tree. 

 (Family Verbenaceae). 



Soft - wooded peppery - aromatic 

 shrubs or half-shrubs: deciduous. 

 Stems compressed at the nodes, 

 quadrangular with obtuse or flat- 

 tened angles, rather slender: pith 

 relatively large, more or less an- 

 gled, white, continuous and homo- 

 geneous. Buds superposed, ses- 

 sile or the upper commonly de- 

 veloping the first season, subglo- 

 bose, the 1 or 2 pairs of leaf-rudi- 

 ments or scales concealed in pu- 

 bescence. Leaf-scars opposite, re- 

 shaped, rather small, low; the 

 surface usually torn and the soli- 

 tary bundle-trace indistinct: sti- 

 pule-scars lacking. 



Winter-character references: 

 Vitex Agnus-castus. Schneider, f. 

 191. V. Negundo. Shirasawa, 

 270, pi. 10. V. trifolia unifolio- 



lata. 

 Stems 



Shirasawa, 270. 

 gray-puberulent. 



V. Agnus-castus. 



