Selagineae
A natural order of shrubs, under-shrubs, or annual or perennial herbs, inhabiting extratropical regions, Australia excepted. Flowers white, blue, or rarely yellow, rather small, hermaphrodite, irregular, bracteate, ebracteolate, in dense, globose, oblong, or elongated, terminal or very rarely axillary spikes; calyx five-cleft or five-parted, or, owing to some of the parts being connate or deficient, three-parted, two-parted, or spathaceous; corolla gamopetalous, shortly or slenderly tubular at base; limb four or five-lobed, one or two-lipped, or sub-regular, spreading; stamens four, didynamous, or two. Fruit small, indehiscent. Leaves alternate, or the lower ones rarely opposite or radical, entire or toothed. The order comprises eight genera and about 140 species. Examples: Globularia, Hebenstretia, Selago.