298 YEEBENACEiE. (VEKVAIN FAMILY.) 



Order 76. VERBENACEiE. (Vervain Family.) 



Herbs <yr shrubs, viitli opposite leaves, more or less 2-lipped or irregular 

 COroUa, and didynamous stamens, the 'i-i-ceUed fruit dry or drupaceous, 

 usually splitting when ripe into as many \-seeded indehiscent nutlets ; differ- 

 ing from the following order in the ovary not being 4-lobed, the style there- 

 fore terminal, and the plants seldom aromatic or furnishing a volatile oil. — 

 Seeds with Uttle or no albumen ; the radicle of the straight embryo point- 

 ing to the base of the fruit. — Mostly tropical or nearly so ; represented 

 here only by some Vervains, a Lippia, and a Callicarpa ; to which we may 

 still append Phryma, which has been promoted into an order (of a single 

 species), because its ovary and fruit are 1-celled and 1-seeded, and the 

 radicle points to the apex of the fruit. 



1. VERBENA, L. Vekvaiu. 



Calyx tabular, 5-toothed, one of the teeth often shorter than the others. Co- 

 rolla tubular, often curved, salver-form ; the border somewhat unequally 5-cloft. 

 Stamens included ; the upper pair occasionally without anthers. Stylo slender : 

 stigma capitate. ]?rait spUtting into 4 seed-like nutlets. — Flowers sessile, in 

 single or often panicled spikes, bracted. (The Latin name for any sacred herb : 

 derivation obscure.) — The species present numerous spontaneous hybrids. 



§ I . Anthers not appendaged : erect herbs, with slender sjnkes, 

 # Leaves undivided : root perennial. 



1. V. angustifolia, Michx. Low (6' -18' high), often simple; leaves 

 narrowly lanceolate, tapering to the base, sessile, roughish, slightly toothed; 

 spikes few or single ; the purple flowers crowded, larger than in the next. — Diy 

 soil, Penn. to Wisconsin and southward. July- Sept. 



2. v. hastXta, L. (Blde Vekvain.) Tall (4' -6' high); leaves lanceo- 

 late or oblong-lanceolate, taper-pointed, cut-serrate, petioled, the lower often lobed and 

 sometimes halberd-shaped at the base ; spikes linear, erect, densely Jloicered, corymbed 

 or panicled. (V. paniculiUa, Lam., when the leaves are not lobed.) — Low and 

 waste grounds, common. July -Sept. {N,at. from Eu.) 



3. "V. DKTioiFoLiA, L. (Nettle-leaved Or White Veevain.) Rather 

 tall ; leaves oval or oblong-ovate, acute, coarsely seirate, petioled ; spikes ve}y slender, at 

 length much elongated, with the flowers remote, loosely panicled, very small, white. 

 — Old fields and road-sides. (Nat. from Eu.) 



4. V. Stricta, Tent. (Hoakt Vekvain.) Downy with soft whitish hairs ; 

 stem nearly simple (1°~2° high) ; leaves sessile, obovate or oblong, serrate; spikes 

 thick and very densely flowered, somev/ha.t clustered, hairy. — Ban-ens, Ohio to 

 Wisconsin, and southward. Aug. — Flowers blue, pretty large. 



* * Leaves cleft or plnnafifld, narrowed at the base : root perennial ? 



5. V. omoiNiLis, L. (Common Vekvain.) Lreci, loosely hr.inched 

 (l°-3° high); leaves pinrtatifld or 3<left, oblong-lanceolate, sessile, smootli above, 

 the lobes cut and toothed; spikes p raided, very slender; Inacls small, much 



