230 FAMILIES OF FLOWERING PLANTS 
or occasionally trees, comprised in about 70 genera and 1200 species of 
wide distribution. They have opposite or whorled, rarely alternate 
leaves, and perfect but usually irregular flowers, variously clustered. 
Calyx 4-5-lobed. Corolla bilabiate (2-lipped) or sometimes regular,* with 
a slender tube and 4-5-cleft upper portion. Stamens 4, one pair longer 
than the others, or rarely 2; ovary superior, 2-4-celled, composed of 2 
carpels ; fruit dry, consisting of 24 nutlets, or fleshy, a 2-4-seeded 
drupe. 
The verbena of our gardens, belonging to the genus Verbena, is a 
characteristic plant of this family. Besides the ornamental species of 
cultivation having the corolla of many colors, there are many wild species 
of Verbena, known as vervains, which are decidedly weeds, having small, 
insignificant flowers in long spikes. (See Fig. 199.) Lippia is some- 
Fic. 199. The Blue Vervain ( Verbena hastata). After Britton and Brown, 
Ill. Fl. Northeast U. S. 
what similar in its characters to Vevbena; it is very widely represented 
in the tropics, as is also Lantana, familiar to us as a greenhouse shrub. 
The black mangrove (Avicennia nitida), common on the Florida Keys, 
and remarkable for its habit of sending up from the ground short erect 
roots, is a tree of thisfamily. The so-called “lemon verbena” belongs 
tothe genus Aloysia. The teakwood of East India (Tectona grandis) is 
one of the most important Oriental timber trees. Other Hast Indian 
genera, sometimes represented in cultivation, are Vitex and Clerodendron. 
Family Labiatae. Mint Family. This very large and important 
*The flat, expanded part of a corolla like that in a phlox flower, is known as the 
lim in contra distinction to the ¢ube below. 
