322. AVICENNIA NITIDA BLACK MANGROVE. 37 



ORDER VERBENACE^: VERVAIN FAMILY. 



Leaves usually opposite, sometimes whorled, persistent, entire. Flowers 

 perfect, sometimes irregular; calyx inferior, 4- or 5-lobed, persistent; corolla 

 with 4 or 5 lobes imbricated in the bud ; stamens 4 in pairs of different lengths, 

 inserted on the corolla-tube alternately with its lobes and with 2-celled introrse 

 anthers opening longitudinally ; pistil sessile with 2- to 4-celled ovary, simple style 

 and 2-lobed terminal stigma; ovules I or 2 in each cell. Fruit a dry or fleshy 

 drupe or capsule. 



The Vervain Family consists of some 1,200 species, grouped in 

 about 70 genera of trees, shrubs, vines and herbs of wide distribution 

 throughout temperate and tropical regions. The herbaceous species 

 predominate in the temperate regions and the woody in tropical 

 regions. 



The species of greatest commercial importance is perhaps the Teak 

 (Tecioria grandis, L. f.), of southeastern Asia. 



Two of the genera, each of a single species, are represented in the 

 trees of southern Florida. 



GENUS AVICEXXIA LINNAEUS. 



Leaves thick and coriaceous. Flowers in terminal cympse pubescent clusters 

 of pedunculate spikes, each subtended by a bract and pair of bractlets; calyx 

 lobes 5, concave; corolla campanulate, white, with 4 spreading lobes, the posterior 

 usually the largest; stamens exserted with short filiform filaments, pistil with 

 ovate i -celled ovary containing 4 orthotropous ovules suspended from a central 

 placenta. Fruit a 2-valved capsule oblong, oblique, compressed, i-seeded, apicu- 

 late, light green, pubescent ; seed without albumen, the embryo germinating and 

 enlarging somewhat before separating from the branch. 



A genus of three species of trees and shrubs inhabiting the low 

 muddy tidal shores of the tropics of both hemispheres, the following 

 one only reaching Florida and the Gulf of Mexico coast to Texas. It 

 is named after Avicenna, a distinguished physician who lived in 

 Bokhara early in the eleventh century. 



322. AVICENNIA NITIDA JACQ. 

 BLACK MANGROVE. NATIVE OAK (Jamaica). 



Ger.. Schivarzer Mangelbaum. Fr., Paletuvier blanc (Fr. W. L). 



Sp., Mangle bobo (Sp. W. I.) ; Palo de sal, Culumata (Cent. Amer.). 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS : Leaves oblong to obovate-oblong, 2-3 in. long, 

 rounded or obtuse at apex, cuneate at base, with entire revolute margin, smooth 

 dark-green above, very finely hoary tomentose beneath, with rather broad midrib 



