THE LABIATE. 



163 



this circumstance alone. There are many plants with 

 labiate flowers that do not belong here. There are 

 many plants with square stems, opposite leaves, and 

 labiate flowers, that still do not belong in this order. 

 NOT do you find in this list of characters any that 

 may not be found elsewhere, as you do in the case of 

 the fruit of Umbelliferse, for instance. Is it, then, 

 necessary, in every case, to make an extended and 

 minute examination of plants suspected of being in 

 this order before deciding that they really are so? 

 "We can best answer this question by carefully ob- 

 serving certain plants. First get a specimen of ver- 

 bena, a widely -cultivated plant belonging to the 

 family Yerbenacese, and compare it with any of the 

 labiate plants named in the beginning of this exer- 

 cise, thus : 



The Verbenaceaa are herbs or 

 shrubs with opposite leaves. 



) : .. 



More or less two-lipped or ir- 

 regular corolla. 

 Didynamous stamens. 



Two to four celled fruit, dry, 

 or drupaceous, usually split- 

 ting, when ripe, into as many 

 one-seeded, indehiscent nut- 

 lets. 



Seeds, with little or no albu- 

 men; the radicle of the 

 straight embryo pointing to 

 the base of the fruit. 



The Labiatae are chiefly herbs, 

 with square stems, opposite, 

 aromatic leaves. 



More or less two-lipped co- 

 rolla. 



Didynamous or diandrous sta- 

 mens. 



A deeply four-lobed ovary, 

 which forms in fruit four 

 little seed -like nutlets or 

 achenia surrounding the 

 base of the single style in 

 the bottom of the persist- 

 ent calyx ; each nutlet filled 

 with a single erect seed. 



Albumen, mostly none; em- 

 bryo, straight; radicle, at 

 the base of the fruit. 



