Scrophularineae
A natural order of herbs, sub-shrubs, shrubs, or small trees, found in all climates, but mostly in temperate regions. Flowers hermaphrodite, often irregular; calyx inferior, persistent, with five, rarely four, teeth or lobes; corolla gamopetalous; limb of five or four, very rarely six or eight, equally spreading lobes, or more or less bilabiate, with the upper lip entire, emarginate, or bilobed, and the lower one trilobed and often spreading; stamens often four, didynamous, or two, alternating with the corolla lobes; anthers two-celled, sometimes one-celled by the confluence of the sutures across the top of the connective; inflorescence variable. Capsules variable, dehiscent, or rarely baccate and indehiscent. Leaves, in a few genera, all alternate, in most cases the lower ones (or all) opposite or whorled, the upper and floral ones often alternate, entire, toothed, or rarely variously lobed or dissected; stipules none. Many of the species are of medicinal value: chief among these is the Foxglove. The order is a most important one from a horticultural standpoint, contributing, as it does, so many beautiful plants to our gardens. It embraces, according to Bentham and Hooker, 157 genera and nearly 1900 species, and is divided by those authors into twelve tribes: Antirrhineae, Aptosimeae, Calceolareae, Cheloneae, Digitaleae, Euphrasieae, Gerardieae, Gratioleae, Hemimerideae, Leucophylleae, Manuleieae, and Verbasceae. Among the many well-known genera, the following may be cited as examples: Antirrhinum, Calceolaria, Chelone, Digitalis, Mimulus, Pentstemon, and Verbascum.