VERBENACE^E. (VERVAIN FAMILY.) 291 



1. VERBENA, Tourn. Vervain. 



Some mere weeds, others ornamental, and many spontaneous hybrids. 

 * Flowers small or comparatively so, in narrow spikes : anthers unappcndaged. 

 •*- Bracts incons])icuons, not exceeding the flowers. 



1. "V". hastata, L. Tall, 3 to 6 feet high: pubescence short, sparse and hir- 

 sute or scabrous: leaves oblong-lanceolate, gradually acuminate, coarsely or 

 incise! >i serrate, petio/ed, some of the lower commonly hastate 3-lobed at base : 

 spikes numerous in a panicle, dense, naked at base or more or less peduncled : 

 corolla blue. — In waste grounds and along roadsides, across the continent. 



2. V. Stricta, Vent. Erect, rather stout, afoot or two high: pubescence 

 softer and denser: leaves cinereous with dense soft hirsute-villous pubescence, thick- 

 ish, rugose-veiny, ovate or oblong, nearly sessile, very sharply and densely 

 mostly doubly serrate t rarely incised: spikes comparatively thick, dense both 

 in flower and fruit, canescent, mostly sessile or leafy-bracted at base : corolla 

 blue, 4 or 5 lines long. — From New Mexico to the Dakotas and eastward to 

 Texas and Ohio. 



1- +- Bracts rigid and somewhat foliaceous, exceeding the flowers. 



3. V. bracteosa, Michx. Much branched from the base, diffuse or de- 

 cumbent, hirsute: leaves cuneate-oblong or cuneate-obovate, narrowed mostly 

 into a short margined petiole, pinnately incised or 3-cleft, and coarsely dentate : 

 spikes terminating the branches: lowest bracts often pinnatifid or incised; 

 the others lanceolate, acuminate, entire, rigid : corolla purplish or blue, very 

 small. — Across the continent. 



* * Flowers more showy, at first depressed-capitate, becoming spicate in fruit: 

 anthers of the larger stamens appendaged by a gland on the connective : tube 

 of corolla at the upper part lined with reflexed bristly hairs. 



4. V. bipinnatiflda, Nutt. A span to a foot high, hispid-hirsute, root- 

 ing from subterranean branches : leaves l|/o4 inches long, bipinnately parted, 

 or 3-parted into more or less bipinnatijid divisions : bracts setaceous-attenuate, 

 mostly surpassing the calyx : limb of the bluish-purple or lilac corolla 4 or 5 lines 

 broad; lobes obcordate : commissure of the nutlets usually retrorsely scabrous or 

 hispidulous. — Plains and prairies, from Arkansas and Texas to the mountains 

 of Colorado. 



5. V. Aubletia, L. A foot or less high, branching and ascending from 

 a creeping or rooting base, soft-pubescent, hirsute, or glabrate : leaves I or 2 

 inches long, ovate or ovate-oblong in outline, with truncate or broadly cuneate 

 base tapering into a margined petiole, incise/y lobed and toothed, often more 

 deeply 3-cleft : bracts subulate or linear-attenuate, shorter than or equalling tht 

 calyx : limb of the reddish-purple or lilac (or white) corolla j or % inch broad: 

 commissure of the nutlets minutely white-dotted or nearly smooth. — Erom the 

 Rocky Mountains eastward across the continent. 



2. LIPPIA, L. 



In ours the flowers are capitate or in short dense spikes, subtended and 

 imbricated by broad bracts ; the peduncles chiefly axillary. 



