608 



VEUBENACE.'E. Verbena. 



1. VERBENA, Linn. Vervain. 



Calyx tubular or plioately prismatic, 5-tootlie<l, ouo tooth often shorter. Corolla 

 salvorforui ; the tube souR'tinies curved ; the limb more or less uneciually 5-cleft. 

 Stamens -1, inchule»l j the upi)i'r pair sometimes sterile. Stigma of two dissimilar 

 lobes, one of them smaller and mostly aU)rtive. Ovary 4-celled, in fruit splitting 

 into 4 one-seeded little nutlets. — Herbs (or a few South American species shrubby); 

 •with the llowers in single or panicled spikes or heads, small, or in some showy. 

 The commoner species are apt to hybridize naturally, and the hybrids are not rarely 

 fertile. 



Chiefly an American genus, mainly South American ; the few Californiau representatives weeds 

 or weedy, and only two or three truly indigenous. 



§ 1. Flowers small in proportion to the spike: anthers glaTidless. 



* Stem erect : spy'ihs filiform and with the flowers or fruits at length more or less 

 scattering : bracts usually shorter than the fronting calyx. 



-t- Annual, or the base becoming ligneous and of longer duration: stems a span to 2 

 feet high, slender : some of the leaves pinnalijid, tapering at base, the lower into a 

 viargined j>etiole. 



1. V. canescens, 1115K. Hoary-hirsute: leaves oblong-lanceolate and cuneate- 

 obovate, rigid, sharply incised or pinnutihd : spikes mostly solitary, terminating the 

 branches ; some of the bracts exceeding the ilowers : corolla bluish, the limb a line 

 or so in diameter. — Nov. Gen. & Sp. ii. 274, t. 13G. V. remota, Benth. PI. Hartw., 

 from Mexico, is a simple-stemmed form. 



CuRon Tiintillas, south of San Diego Co., Pidmcr. Probably extends withui the State, as it 

 does eastward to Texas and Mexico. 



2. V. officinalis, Linn. Minutely roughish-pubescent, loosely branched : leaves 

 obovate or oblong, or the upper lanceolate, some merely incised, others once or twice 

 liiunatilid or 3 -5-cleft : bracts all shorter than the calyx : corolla purplish or lilac, 

 the limb 2 lines in diameter, sumetimes moie. 



Dry waste giounds througli the western jiiut of the State, i>robably naturalized, but the species 

 occurs round the world. A stouter lorm, and with limb ot corolla 3 or more lines in diameter, 

 answering to V. sororiu, Don, was sent from San Diego by JJr. Hilclicock. 



■^ +- J'erennial, 2 to b feet high: leaves serrate or merely incised. 



3. V. polystachya, IIHK. Scabrous with very sliort i)artly hispid pubescence, 

 green, jjauicuhitely Ijrauched : leaves from oblong to lanceolate (mostly about 2 

 inches long), sessile by a narrowed base, or the lower sliort-petioled, coarsely sen-ate 

 or sparingly incised : spikes loosely panicled or sometimes solitary : corolla pin-plish 

 or nearly white, the limb about a line in diameter. — V. polystachya, V. biserraia. A; 

 (according to Schauer) V. va'onicaffulia,\U\K. 1. c. V. Carolinensis, »kc., Dill. Hort. 

 Elth. 407, t. 301. V. Carolina, Linn., but it is a Mexican, not a Carolinian spe- 

 cies. V. Caroiiniana, Spreng. ; Hook. & Arn. Lot. Leechey, 156 ; Schauer in DC. 

 l»rodr. xi. 54G. 



Monterey or San Francisco, according to Hooker k Arnott in the Botany of Beechey's Voyage. 

 Los Angeles, IVallace ? 



V. unriciFOi.iA, Linn. Orcen, minutely rougiiish-pubesccnt : leaves ovate and ovate-lanceo- 

 late, mostly acute or acuminate, simply or doubly serrate, all but the uppermost with lounded 

 base and a slender petiole, the larger 4 or 5 inches long : panicled spikes very slender : corolla 

 mostly white. 



A common weed in the Atlantic SUites, extending into Mexico, &c. ; very likely to reach Cali- 

 fornia : the specimen sent by Wallace, mentioned under the prcceiling, is too incomplete to deter- 

 mine whether it belongs to that or the present species. 



