ABSTRACT
Linnaeus ([1753] 1957) had not seen living specimens of what he called Verbena stoechadifolia. Instead, he knew them from the reports of Charles Plumier from 1703, Sebastien Vailant in 1718 (1669-1722), and Adrian van Royen in 1740. Presumably all three earlier authors had studied the plants in cultivation in France and then in the Netherlands. It was 1803 when Andre Michaux discovered and named the second species as Lippia lanceolata. Both species have been moved from genus to genus as understanding of their relationships evolved. Most of us still do not know the differences between Lippia and Phyla, but the latter genus contains about 11 tropical and warm region species around the world (Mabberley 1997).
