Calamintha. LABIATE. 359 



S. rigida, Bartram. Cespitose-procumbent, suffrutescent : leaves crowded, rigid, subu- 

 late-lanceolate, with strongly revolute margins, obtuse, quarter inch long, scabrous or 

 becoming smooth, above passing into the broader and Hatter villous-hirsute bracts : calyx 

 equally and deeply 5-cleft, membranaceous : corolla light purple; the tube (3 lines long) 

 much shorter than the lips : filaments at length exserted. Benth. Lab. 354, & DC. Prodr. 

 xi. 211. E. Florida, in sand. 



18. MICROMERIA, Benth. (Mr/.(>6^ small, and pfyog, a part, from small 

 size of flowers, &c.) Chiefly of the Old World. Our two species, of the section 

 HESPEROTHYMUS, are diffusely spreading or creeping perennial herbs, with slender 

 stems, rounded and petioled veiny thin leaves, and 1 to 3 slender-pedicelled purplish 

 flowers in their axils ; in summer. To these an anomalous California!! species is 

 added. 



M. Brownei, Beilth. Glabrous, or nearly so : leaves roundish, obscurely crenate : pedi- 

 cels bractless : calyx villous in the throat ; teeth lanceolate-ovate. Lab. 372 ; Schmidt in 

 Fl. Bras. viii. t. 32. Tlujmus Brownei, Swartz. River-banks, Florida. ( W. Ind., S. Am.) 



Var. pilosiuscula, with leaves (perhaps shorter-petioled) and sometimes stem and 

 calyx sparsely pilose-pubescent: passes into M. Xa/apensis, Benth., and as such is enume- 

 rated in Bot. Mex. Bound. 129. Texas, near San Antonio ( Thurber), and southward. (Mata- 

 moras, Berhinilicr, Mex., &c.) 



M. Douglasii, Benth. 1. c. (YERBA BITENA.) Somewhat pubescent: trailing and creep- 

 ing stem elongated : leaves broadly ovate or roundish : pedicels 2-bracteolatc below : calyx 

 naked in the throat; the teeth subulate. M. barbula, Fisch. & Meyer. T/ti/mus Douyhisii 

 & T. Chumissonls, Benth. in Linn. vi. 80. Woods, Vancouver's Island to Los Angeles Co., 

 California. 



M. purpurea, Gray. Erect, much branched, probably from an annual root, minutely 

 and loosely pubescent : leaves short-petioled, lanceolate, acuminate, acutely serrate (inch 

 long), with dense umbelliform cy mules subsessile in their axils : calyx oblong-campanulate, 

 a line and a half long, about equalling the pedicels, naked in the throat ; teeth slender- 

 subulate, almost equalling the small "purple-blue" corolla. Bot. Calif, i. 505. Hedeoma 

 purpurea, Kellogg in Proc. Calif. Acad. v. 52. (All 4 stamens antheriferous.) Webb's 

 Landing on an island in the San Joaquin River, California, Kellogg. 



M. HHACTEOtvvTA, Benth. 1. c., founded on " Iledeoma bracteolata. Pubescent, stem simple, 

 slender : leaves linear-sublanceolate, acute at each extremity, entire : pedicels setaceously 

 bracteolate, 3-5-flowered : calyx oblong, equal: corolla minute? In Carolina." Nutt. 

 Gen. Addend. This is wholly obscure. 



19. CALAMfNTHA, Tourn., Mocnch. CALAMINT. (Old Greek name 

 of some plant of this order.) Herbs or nndershrubs, chiefly of warm-temperate 

 regions, of various habit, flowering all summer. Ours are perennials, and are 

 various in habit. 



C. PALMERI, Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. xi. 100, an annual, of the Acinos section and the habit 

 and odor of Hcdeonm, belongs to Lower California, much beyond our limits. 



1. Flowers loose, and without long-subulate bracts: calyx in ours usually 

 villous in the throat: anthers naked. 



* Herbaceous, small-flowered : corolla pale purple or nearly white. 



-) Introduced, pubescent: peduncles short but mostly distinct, several-flowered: calyx conspicu- 

 ously villous in the throat. 

 C. NEPETA, Link. (BASIL THYME.) Villous- or cinereous-pubescent, 1 to 3 feet high : leaves 



roundish-ovate, crenate (half inch long), short-petioled; uppermost reduced to^ bracts : 



bractlets minute : corolla 4 lines long. Benth. Lab. & in DC. xii. 228. M<'/^,i \cpeta, L. 



T/it/mus Ncprta, Smith, Engl. Bot. 1. 1414. Dry waste grounds, from Maryland to Arkansas. 



(Nat. from Eu.) 

 C. OFFICTXALIS, Mcench, Meth. 409, the common Calamint of Europe, is inclined to escape 



from cultivation in a few places. 



