VEKBENACE^E. (VERVAIN FAMILY.) 291 



I. VERBENA, Tourn. VERVAIN. 



Some mere weeds, others ornamental, and many spontaneous hybrids. 

 # Flowers small or comparatively so, in narrow spikes : anthers unappendaged. 

 t Bracts inconspicuous, not exceeding the flowers. 



1. V. hastata, L. Tall, 3 to 6 feet high: pubescence short, sparse and hir- 

 sute or scabrous: leaves oblong-lauceolate ; gradually acuminate, coarsely or 

 inciselij serrate, petioled, some of the lower commonly hastate 3-lohed at base : 

 spikes numerous in a panicle, dense, naked at base or more or less pedunc/ed : 

 corolla blue. In waste grounds and along roadsides, across the continent. 



2. V. Stricta, Vent. Erect, rather stout, a foot or two high: pubescence 

 softer and denser: leaves cinereous with dense soft hirsute-villous pubescence, thick- 

 ish, rugose-veiny, ovate or oblong, nearly sessile, vert/ sharp!// and densely 

 mostly doubly serrate, rarely incised : spikes comparatively thick, dense both 

 in flower and fruit, canescent, most!// sessile or leafy-braded at base : corolla 

 blue, 4 or 5 lines long From New Mexico to Dakota and eastward to Texas 

 and Ohio. 



-t- H- Bracts rigid and somewhat foliaceous, exceeding the flowers. 



3. V. bracteosa, Michx. Much branched from the base, diffuse or de- 

 cumbent, hirsute : leaves cuneate-oblong or cuneate-obovate, narrowed mostly 

 into a short margined petiole, pinnately incised or 3-cleft, and coarsely dentate : 

 spikes terminating the branches: lowest bracts often pinnatifid or incised; 

 the others lanceolate, acuminate, entire, rigid : corolla purplish or blue, very 

 small. Across the continent. 



* * Floicers more showy, at flrst depressed-capitate, becoming spicate in fruit: 

 anthers of the larger stamens appendaged l/ a gland on the connective: tube 

 of corolla at the upper part lined with reflexed bristly hairs. 



4. V. bipinnatifida, Nutt. A span to a foot high, hispid-hirsute, root- 

 ing from subterranean branches : leaves 1 ^ to 4 inches long, bipinnatefi/ parted, 

 or ^-parted into more or less bipinnatifld divisions : bracts setaceous-attenuate, 

 mostly surpassing the calyx : limb of the bluish-purple or lilac corolla 4 or 5 lines 

 broad ; lobes obcordate : commissure of the nutlets usually retrorseli/ scabrous or 

 hispidulous. Plains and prairies, from Arkansas and Texas to the mountains 

 of Colorado. 



5. V. Aubletia, L. A foot or less high, branching and ascending from 

 a creeping or rooting base, soft-pubescent, hirsute, or glabrate : leaves 1 or 2 

 inches long, ovate or ovate-oblong in outline, with truncate or broadly cuneate 

 base tapering into a margined petiole, inciselt/ lobed and toothed, often more 

 deeply 3-cleft : bracts subulate or linear-attenuate, shorter than or equal ling the 

 calyx: limb of the reddish-purple or lilac (or white) corolla $ or inch broad: 

 commissure of the nutlets minutely ichite-dotted or nearly smooth. From the 

 Rocky Mountains eastward across the continent. 



2. LIP PI A, L. 



In ours the flowers are capitate or in short dense spikes, subtended and 

 imbricated by broad bracts ; the peduncles chiefly axillary. 



