Verbena 



VERBENACEiE. 



51 



Group 9. Ovary free from the calyx, either 2 - 4-lobed and becoming as many 

 one-seeded achenia or little nuts, or else entire and drupaceous, including as 

 many one-seeded nucules ; sometimes dry and separable, but the cells never more 

 than 2-ovulcd. Corolla, regular or irregular ; the stamens inserted on its tube, 

 equalling its lobes or fewer in number. 



Order LXX. VERBENACEiE. Juss. The Vervain Tribe. 



Calyx tubular, 4 - 5-toothed, often irregular, persistent. Corolla more or less 

 irregular ; the limb 4 - 5-lobed, sometimes 2-lipped. Stamens usually 4 and 

 didynamous ; the 2 upper (posterior) ones sometimes either sterile or wanting. 

 Ovary entire, 2 — 4- (rarely 1-) celled, with 1-2 ascending ovules in each 

 cell. Fruit drupaceous, baccate, or dry and splitting into 2-4 one-seeded 

 carpels; rarely one-celled and indehiscent, with a single seed. Seeds with 

 little or no albumen. — Herbs, shrubs or sometimes trees, with 4-angled stems 

 and opposite leaves. Flowers mostly in spikes, heads or racemes. 



1. VERBENA. Linn.; Endl. gen. 3685. vervain. 



[ The name is said to be an alteration of the Celtic word ferfacn, which is derived from fer, to drive away, and faen, a 



stone ; in allusion to i;s medicinal virtues.] 



Calyx tubular, 5-toothed ; one of the teeth often shorter than the others. Corolla tubular or 

 somewhat funnel-form, with the limb rather unequally 5-lobed. Stamens sometimes only 

 2, or the upper pair abortive. Drupe with a thin evanescent epicarp, at length splitting 

 into four 1-seeded carpels. Endocarp crustaceous. — Herbs or undershrubs. Flowers 

 sessile, mostly in terminal spikes, bracteate. 



1. Verbena hastata, Linn. Tall Blue Vervain. Simpler 's Joy. 



Erect ; leaves lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, tapering to a point, incisely serrate , the 

 lower ones often lobed or somewhat hastate at the base ; spikes linear, erect, corymbose- 

 paniculate, rather densely imbricated. — Linn. sp. 1 . p. 10 ; Michx.jl 2. p. 14 ; Pursh, fl. 2. 

 p. 416 ; Ell. sk. 2. p. 98 ; Bigel. fl. Bost. p. 238 ; Beck, hot. p. 283 ; Darlingt. fl. Cest. 

 p. 372. V. paniculata, Lam. ill. p. 57 ; Pers. syn. 2. p. 138 ; Pursli, I. c. ; Ell. 1. c. ; 

 Lindl. hot. reg. t. 1102 ; Hook. fl. Bor.-Arv. 2. p. 117. 



Root perennial. Siem 3-6 feet high, straight and somewhat rigid, rough and hairy, 

 4-sided. Leaves 3 — 5 inches long, rough ; the lowest ones often with a lube on each side 



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