230 LABIAT& (Brown). [ Becium. 
I. BECIUM, Lindley. 
Calya 3- (rarely 5-) toothed, two-lipped; upper lip or tooth 
broadly ovate, decurrent on the tube; lower lip formed by the 
oblique or truncate, ciliate or denticulate mouth of the tube and 
2 subulate or bristlelike teeth, lateral teeth none or rarely 
developed. Corolla two-lipped ; tube exserted beyond the calyx- 
teeth or about equalling them ; upper lip 4-lobed, erect ; lower lip 
concave or boat-shaped. Stamens 4, directed towards the lower 
lip, exserted ; filaments all free, the upper pair abruptly bent or 
kneed and toothed. or crested near the base; anthers dorsifixed, 
l-celled. Ovary 4-lobed ; style filiform; stigma bifid, of 2 linear 
lobes. Nutlets ellipsoid or oblong, slightly compressed dorsally, 
glabrous. Lindl. Bot. Reg. 1842, Misc. 42, and 1843, t. 15. 
Herbs or small shrubs; leaves opposite or fascicled, simple, gland-dotted ; 
inflorescence terminal, spike-like, with distant or crowded flower-whorls ; flowers 
variable in size. 
Disrris. A genus of several species, 2 in India, 1 in Arabia, the rest African. 
As remarked by Lindley when he established the genus, Becium is well 
distinguished from Ocimum by the peculiar form of the calyx ; the distinct deltoid 
acute lateral teeth of Ocimum being replaced in Becium by the obliquely truncate 
entire or denticulate, densely ciliate sides of the mouth of the tube, and the 
2 lower teeth are small and bristle-like, and often divergent. In the general 
appearance of the inflorescence and flowers Becium is also somewhat different from 
Ocimum and easily recognised. N, F. Br. 
Flower-whorls densely crowded into a head- or short 
spike-like raceme or only 1-3 of the lower separate ; 
leaves 8-15 lin. broad ... (1) obovatum. 
Flower-whorls all separate, 4-4 in. apart; leaves 4-°4 
in. broad : 
lin. 
Leaves 3-14 in. long, linear or linear-lanceolate ... (2) angustifolium. 
Leaves 4-4 in. long, subspathulate-oblanceolate ... (83) burehellianum. 
1. B. obovatum (N. E. Br.); stems several from a perennial 
woody rootstock, herbaceous, 5-10 in. high, puberulous ; leaves 
with petioles 4-2 lin. long; blade 3-2} in. long, }-1} in. broad, 
varying from lanceolate to suborbicular, acute or obtuse, usually 
tapering into the petiole, entire or slightly toothed, usually glabrous 
on both sides, occasionally puberulous on the veins beneath, 
secondary veins usually distinctly visible beneath ; flower-whorls all 
crowded into a dense head-like or short spike-like raceme or the 
lower 1-3 distant, all with a pair of rather large crater-like glands 
at their base; racemes often crowned with a tuft of small dark . 
(purple?) leafy bracts ; pedicels 4-} (in fruit up to 1}) lin. long ; 
calyx campanulate, whitish-pubescent outside, glabrous within, 
much reticulated, dark purple on the upper side ; tube 14 (in fruit 3) 
lin, long, ciliate and entire or finely denticulate at the mouth 
