VERBEXA FAMILY. 451 



branched or spreading; herbage mostly soft-pubescent; leaves oblong- 

 ovate, coarselj- serrate, and often laciniately lobed, especially toward 

 the base which is contracted into the cuneately winged petiole; spikes 

 2 or 3 in. to 1 ft. long, solitary or more commonly loosely paniculate; 

 bracts subulate, shorter than the calyx; corolla violet or blue, 2 lines 

 long; nutlets oblong. 



Drj' open hill country throughout western California: Humboldt 

 Co.; Sonoma and Vacaville, southward to Alameda Co., Santa Clara 

 Co. and Southern California. July-Sept. 



3. V. bracteosa Michx. Diffusely much branched, J to 1 ft. 

 high or more; leaves pinnately incised or 8-cleft with coarsely serrate 

 lobes, narrowed at base into a Avinged petiole; spikes commonly dense, 

 sessile; bracts lanceolate, rigid, conspicuously exceeding the flowers, 

 mostly entire or the lowest incised; corolla small, blue. 



Lower San Joaquin; probably introduced. 



2. LIPPIA L. Lemon Vekbexa. 

 Ours prostrate perennial herbs with simple leaves. Flowers small, 

 similar to those of ^'erbena, disposed in short spikes or heads sub- 

 tended by broad closely imbricated bracts. Pubescence fine, the 

 hairs fixed by the middle and both ends acute. Peduncles slender', 

 axillary. Calyx small and short, in ours 2-cleft, the lobes entire and 

 lateral. Corolla-limb manifestly bilabiate, 4-lobed, the upper lip 

 retuse or emarginate. Style mostly short; stigma thickish, oblique. 

 Pericarp more or less corky, not readily separating into the 2 nutlets. 

 (In memory of Dr. A. Lippi, a French naturalist, killed in 

 Abyssinia, in 1703.) 



Leaves thickish, oblanceolate or oboyate 1. i. nodiftora. 



Leaves thinnish, ovate .... . 2. L. lanceolata. 



1. L. nodlflora Michx. Stems extensively creeping from a 

 lignescent perennial base; herbage minutely canesceiit throughout; 

 leaves thickish, cuneate-oblanceolate or -obovate, sessile, | to nearly 1 

 in. long, sharply serrate towards the apex; peduncles filiform, 1 to 4 

 in, long, much exceeding the leaves; heads cylindraceous in age, 3 

 lines thick; calyx with 2 low triangular teeth, these laterally disposed 

 and entire or notched; corolla white, li lines broad, the lower lobe 

 transversely oblong; fruit globose or didymous. 



Lower Sacramento and San Joaquin, especially on river banks. 

 Esteemed as a plant covering for the soil on levees for the purpose of 

 resisting erosion. July-Sept. 



2. L. lanceolata Michx. Similar to the preceding but greener; 

 leaves thinner, 1 to 2^ in. long, ovate, sharply serrate except at the 

 broadly cuneate base which is abruptly narrowed to a short petiole, 

 pinnately straight-veined; peduncles often shorter than the leaves; 

 corolla bluish white. 



Common on muddy banks of the islands lying near the confluence 

 of the Sacramento aiid San Joaquin Rivers: Grand Island; Bouldin 

 Island, etc. 



