THE VERVAIN FAMILY 



VERBENACE^ J. St. Hilaire 



lERBENACE^ comprise about 70 genera, including some 1200 species 

 of herbs, shrubs, vines or trees of wide distribution in both temperate 

 and tropical regions throughout the world. Most of the species of the 

 temperate regions are herbaceous; the tropical ones are generally 

 woody; some of the trees, such as Teak, Tectoria grandis Linnaeus fils, of the 

 East Indies, are important timber producers ; many of the herbaceous plants have 

 ,been used in domestic medicine, but are not of suflScient value to receive profes- 

 sional recognition. Among the most popular garden plants belonging to this 

 family are various species of Verbena and Lantana, while many other genera are 

 numerously represented in conservatories. 



The VerbenacecB have usually alternate leaves; sometimes they are whorled, 

 opposite or clustered, usually simple, seldom compound. The flowers are perfect, 

 more or less irregular; the cal3rx is inferior, 4- or 5-lobed, persistent, usually 

 subtended by a bractlet; the gamopetalous corolla is 4-lobed or 5-lobed; the sta- 

 mens are 2 or 4, in i or 2 pairs, borne on the coroUa-tube and alternate with its 

 lobes; anthers 2-celled, opening longitudinally; the ovary is 2- to 4-celled, rarely 

 8- to lo-celled; style terminal, the stigma entire or 2- or 4-lobed; ovules solitary 

 or 2 in each cavity. The fruit is dry and separable into 2 or 4 nutlets, or drupe- 

 Kke or berry-Uke containing 2 to 4 nutlets; the seed is usually solitary; endosperm 

 wanting, scant or rarely abimdant; the embryo is straight. Our arborescent genera 

 are: 



Fruit a fleshy drupe; ovary imperfectly 4-celIed; seed one in each cavity; 



leaves pale green. i. Citharexylon. 



Fruit atiry capsule; ovary i-celled; seeds 2 in each cavity; leaves dark above, 



whitish beneath. 2. Avicennia. 



I. FIDDLEWOOD 



GENUS CrrHAREXTTLON LINN^US 

 Species Citharexylon cinereom Linnseus 



HIS small evergreen tree or shrub of the sandy soils of Florida also 

 occurs throughout the West Indies, attaining a height of 7 meters or 

 more, with a trunk diameter of 1.5 dm. 



The slender branches are ascending. The bark is from 1.5 to 3 

 mm. thick, close, light reddish brown, quite smooth or separating into small scales. 



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