430 THE PLITMBAOO FAMILY. 



I. VERVEIN. VEEBENA. 



Herbs or rarely shrubs, with opposite stem-leaves, and alternate flowers 

 in terminal spikes. Calyx 5-toothed. Corolla with a distinct tube, ar.d a 

 rather unequally 5-cleft, spreading limb. Stamens 4, or rarely only 2, in- 

 cluded in the tube. Fruit enclosed in the calyx, dividing into 4 one-seeded 

 nuts. 



A genus confined in Europe to one or two species, but comprising nume- 

 rous American ones, which have been still more multiplied in our gardens 

 by the more or less permanent varieties or races produced by cultivation. 



1. Common Vervein. Verbena officinalis, Lmn. 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 767.) 



A nearly glabrous, erect perennial, 1 to 2 feet high, with long, spreading, 

 wiry branches. Lower leaves obovate or oblong, stalked, and coarsely 

 toothed or cut ; the upper ones few, sessUe, and lanceolate. Flowers very 

 small, in long, slender spikes, the lower ones becoming distant as the spike 

 leugtliens, each one sessile in the axd of a small bract. 



On roadsides and in waste places, in central and southern Europe and 

 Asia, extending northwards into southern Sweden. Frequent in the south- 

 ern counties of England, rai-e in the north and in Ireland, and almost mi- 

 known in Scotland. Fl. summer and auiiimn. 



LIX. THE PLUMBAGO FAMILY. PLUMBAGINEiE. 



Herbs, or rarely undershrubs, usually bard and stiff; the 

 leaves mostly or entirely radical; the flowers in terminal heads, 

 spikes, or panicles. Calyx tubular, often enlarged and petal- 

 like at the top. Corolla of 5 petals, often united at the base. 

 Stamens 5, inserted at the base of the corolla or between the 

 petals. Ovary single, with one cell, and a single, suspended 

 ovule, but bearing 5 styles, either quite distinct or united 

 beloAv the middle. Capsule either indehiscent or opening irre- 

 gularly, and enclosing a single seed. 



A small family, extending over most parts of the world, but chiefly within 

 the influence of the sea air, or occasionally on high mountains. Besides the 

 two British genera, some species of Plumbago or Leadtcort (which gives its 

 name to the family) are cultivated as ornamental plants in our gardens. 



Flowers in terminal panicles or spi^a. Styles glabrous 1. Staticb. 



Flowers in globular heads. StylaiTOairy at the base 2. Thbift. 



I. STATICS. STATICE. 



Flowers solitary or two or three together, in little spikelets within 2 bracts, 

 these spikelets forming one-sided spikes, arranged either in a dichotomoua 

 or trichotomous panicle, or, in some exotic species, forming a single spike. 

 Calyx more or less expanded at the top into a dry, membranous, coloured, 

 and slightly 5-lobed limb, each lobe traversed by a green or dark nerve. 

 Petals shghtly united at the base, the stamens inserted at their point of 

 union. Styles glabrous. 



