LXII. VERBENACEÆ.
Trees or shrubs, with opposite simple entire persistent leaves, without stipules. Flowers perfect; calyx 5-toothed or parted, persistent under the fruit; corolla 4 or 5-lobed, the lobes imbricated in the bud; stamens 4, inserted on the tube of the corolla in pairs of different lengths, anthers 2-celled, introrse, the cells opening longitudinally; ovary sessile on the annular disk; style simple, 2-lobed and stigmatic at apex. Fruit a fleshy drupe or a capsule.
The Verbena family with seventy-eight genera, largely composed of herbaceous plants, is widely scattered through temperate and tropical regions. Some of the species are important timber-trees, the most valuable being the Teak, Tectoria grandis L. f., of southeastern Asia and the Malay Archipelago, and some of the tropical species of Vitex.
CONSPECTUS OF THE ARBORESCENT GENERA OF THE UNITED STATES.
Flowers in axillary or terminal racemes; staminodium 1; ovary imperfectly 4-celled; fruit a fleshy drupe.1. [Citharexylon.] Flowers cymose in pedunculate spikes or heads; staminodium 0; ovary 1-celled; fruit a capsule.2. [Avicennia.]