676 



THE VEEVEIN FAMILY. 



LVI. THE VERVEIN FAMILY. VERBENACE.E. 



Herbs, shrubs, or trees, with opposite or rarely alternate leaves. 

 Flowers of Labiates, except that the ovary is entire, with the 

 style proceeding from the top. Fruit dry or succulent, usually 

 shorter than the persistent calyx, 2- or 4-celled, with 1 seed in 

 each cell. 



A large family, chiefly, American or from the warmer regions of Asia 

 and Africa. Besides the numerous cultivated species of Vervein, 

 several exotic genera, such as Lantana, Vitex, etc., are familiar to our 

 gardeners. 



I. VERVEIN. VEKBENA. 



Herbs or rarely shrubs, with opposite stem-leaves, and alternate 

 flowers in terminal spikes. Calyx 5 -toothed. Corolla with a distinct 

 tube, and a rather unequally 5-cleft, spreading limb. Stamens 4, or 

 rarely only 2, included in the tube. Fruit enclosed in the calyx, divi- 

 ding into 4 one-seeded nuts. 



A genus confined in Europe to one or two species, but comprising 

 numerous American ones, which have been still more multiplied in our 

 gardens by the more or less permanent varieties or races produced by 

 cultivation. 





1. Common Vervein. Verbena officinalis, Linn. (Fig. 814.) 



(Eng. Bot. t. 767.) 



A nearly glabrous, erect perennial, 

 1 to 2 feet high, with long, spreading, 

 wiry branches. Lower leaves obovate 

 or oblong, stalked, and coarsely toothed 

 or cut ; the upper ones few, sessile, and 

 lanceolate. Flowers very small, in long, 

 slender spikes, the lower ones becoming 

 distant as the spike lengthens, each one 

 sessile in the axil of a small bract. 



On roadsides and in waste places, in 

 central and southern Europe and Asia, 

 extending northwards into southern 

 Sweden. Frequent in the southern 

 counties of England, rare in the north 

 and in Ireland, and almost unknown in 

 Scotland. Fl. summer and autumn. 

 Fig. 814. 



