N. 0. VERBENACEiE. 
987 
minute, 2-fid, hairy. Corolla-tuhe cylindric, slender, mouth 2-lipp- 
ed, lower lip rather longer, pinkish-purple to white (C B. Clarke). 
Filaments and style very short. Fruit hardly tV in. diam., nearly 
dry. 
“ Flowers all the year round, very pale violet-pink ” (Trimen) 
“ Stame'ns unequal paii*, included. Ovary 2-celled, stigma 
capitate separating into two 1-seeded nutlets (Collett). 
Uses : —The plant is officinal, and considered cooling. The 
tender stalks and leaves are slightly bitter, and prescribed in 
the form of an infusion to children suffering from indigestion, 
and to women after delivery. (Ainslie). It is used in Bombay 
as a demulcent in cases of gonorrhoea. A poultice composed 
of the fresh plant is a good maturant for boils. (Dymock. 
Honnigberger considered it valuable in ischury, stoppage of 
the bowels and pain in the knee-joint. Tn Mexico the leaves of 
several species of Lippia, called ‘oregano’ are very much used 
to flavour food. It is cooked with fish, sausage and other food. 
*/ A '1 V.7 
946 . Verbena officinalis, Linn., h.f.b.i., iv. 565 . 
Vern. Pamukh, karaita (Pb.) ; Shamuki (Pushtu). 
Habitat : — Himalaya from Kashmir to Bhotan. Bengal Plain 
to the Sunderbunds. 
An erect, more or less pubescent, perennial herb. Stems L-3ft. 
high, decumbent at the base, branched 4-sided puberulous. 
Leaves 2-4 in. long, variously lobed, narrowed to the base , 
lower ones stalked, pinnatified or coarsely toothed, more or less 
pubescent and usually hoary on the nerves beneath ; upper 
sessile, usually 3-partite. Flowers j- in. long, sessile in dense 
bracteate heads which elongate as the fruit ripens into slender 
spikes up to 10 in. long ; bracts ovate, acute. Calyx twice as 
long as the bracts and half’as long as the corolla-tube, minutely 
5-toothed, glandular-hairy. Corolla blue or lilac, hairy ; limb 
spreading, about i in, diam., lobes subquadrate, throat hairy. 
Fruit dry, ultimately separating into 4 one-seeded nutlets 
pyrenes 3-ribbed TVAin., oblong, smooth dorsally, their under 
faces with minute white flaking cells. 
Uses : — The fresh leaves are used as febrifuge and tonic, 
and as rubefacient in rheutnatism and diseases of the joints ; 
