XCV. VERBENACEJSi 
1179 
14. VITEX, Linn. 
(A name used by Pliny, for this or some similar shrub.) 
Calyx 5-toothed or lobed. Corolla-tube short ; limb spreading, 5-lobed, the 
lowest lobe larger and longer than the others and sometimes notched. Stamens 
4, in pairs, ascending and exserted beyond the upper corolla-lobes. Ovary 2- 
celled or more or less perfectly 4-celled, with 1 ovule to each half-cell or cell, 
laterally attached at or above the middle. Style filiform, shortly and acutely 2- 
lobed. Fruit a succulent drupe, the putamen separating into 4 hard one-seeded 
pyrenes (or fewer by abortion). Seeds without albumen. — Trees or shrubs. 
Leaves opposite, usually of 3 or 5 digitate leaflets, very rarely single (or of a 
single leaflet). Flowers in cymes, sometimes axillary but usually in terminal 
panicles either simple and spike-like or branched. Bracts very small. 
A considerable tropical and subtropical genus, chiefly Asiatic or African with a few- American 
species, and one species extending to S. Europe. Of the four Queensland species, one is widely 
spread over the Old World within the tropics, another extends to India 
two are endemic. 
ind China, and the other 
Leaves white underneath, undivided or of 3 or 5 leaflets 1. V. trifolia. 
Leaves green on both sides, undivided \ .... 2. V. lignum vita. 
Leaves green on both sides, of 3 or 5 leaflets. 
Flowers in loose thyrsoid panicles, mostly terminal 3. V. acuminata. 
Flowers in very loose dichotomous cymes on axillary peduncles ... 4. V. glabrata. 
1. V. trifolia (leaves of 3 leaflets), Linn.; Schau. in DC. Prod. xi. 683; 
Bentii FI. Austr. v. 66. A shrub or small tree or sometimes decumbent and low, 
in some varieties tall and erect, the branches, under side of the leaves and 
inflorescence mealy-white. Leaves very variable, simple or of 3 or 5 leaflets 
often white on both sides, but usually becoming nearly glabrous on the upper 
side at least when old. Flowers nearly white or pale blue, in small nearly sessile 
opposite cymes, forming short terminal panicles, either simple and spike-like or 
slightly branched, the floral leaves reduced to short bracts. Calyx in the typical 
forms about 2 lines long, very shortly 5-toothed, the corolla-tube nearly twice as 
long as the calyx, the 4 upper lobes short, the lov r est twice as large and often as 
long as the tube and both calyx and corolla more or less mealy outside. Ovary 
2-celled, with 2 ovules in each cell. Drupe globular, 3 to 4 lines diameter, 
black. — Rumph. Herb. Amb. iv. t. 18; Rheede Hort. Mai. ii. t. 11. 
Hab.: Islands of the Gulf of Carpentaria, Henne ; along the coast from Cape York to Moreton 
Bay, R. Brown, A. Cunningham, F. v. Mueller, Dallachg, and many others. 
Wood a dark-grey, firm and close in grain. — Bailey’s Cat. Ql. H oods, No. ‘299a. 
The species is a very common Asiatic one, chiefly maritime, and varying very much as to 
foliage, the three following principal Queensland forms agreeing more or less with Asiatic 
varieties, but some of them passing into species which in Asia has been considered as perfectly 
distiuct. 
1. ohovala. Decumbent. Leaflets (or simple leaves) mostly solitary, obovate or rounded, 
1 to 1 Jill, long, rarely, especially on flowerless branches, 3-foliolate and less obtuse. A strictly 
maritime variety in the colony as in tropical Asia. — V. ovata, Thunb., Hook, and Arn. Bot. 
Beech. 206, t. 47, R. Br. Prod. 511. 
2. acutifolia. Decumbent or erect. Leaflets 3 or sometimes 5 or only 1, ovate or ovate- 
lanceolatc, acute or acuminate, the middle one often above 2in. long.— F trifolia, R. Br. Prod. 
511.— Common along the coast and appears to be not so strictly maritime as the obovate-leaved 
form. 
3. parvijlora. Erect. Leaflets 5 or sometimes 3 ovate or ovate-lanceolate, acute. Flowers 
much smaller than in the two preceding forms, and resembing those of the Asiatic V. Xcgundo, 
from which this variety is scarcely to be distinguished. — Gulf of Carpentaria to Moreton Bay. 
There are numerous intermediate specimens connecting the above three principal forms. — 
Benth. 
2. V. lignum-vitae (timber called litjniun-vitai), A. Cunn. Schau. in DC. 
Prod. xi. 692 ; Benth. FI. Austr. v. 67. A tall handsome tree, the young 
branches petioles and inflorescence rusty-tomentose or pubescent. Leaves all 
simple (or unifoliolate ?), oblong or oval-elliptical, shortly acuminate, narrowed 
