FAMILIES OF FLOWERING PLANTS 



231 



group consists of about 160 genera and 3000 species, of very wide dis- 

 tribution. They are herbs or shrubs, rarely trees, with highly aromatic 

 herbage, and may be recognized usually by the square stems and opposite 

 leaves. The calyx is 5-toothed or 5-lobed, mostly nerved ; the corolla 

 with a 4-5-lobed Kmb, but mostly bilabiate. Stamens 4, in two sets, or 

 2. Ovary superior, 4-lobed, becoming in fruit 4 one-seeded nutlets, one 

 of the important characters of the family. 



The Labiatae include all of our familiar wild and garden mints, such 

 as balm, savory, sweet basil, sweet marjory, thyme, hyssop, lavender, 

 pennyroyal, bergamot and the like. While the majority of the mints 

 used for economic and officinal purposes are of Old World origin, we 

 have many genera and species in the United States. There is space 

 merely to mention a few of the more important forms. Mentha (See Fig. 

 200) is the type of the family, and furnishes us with peppermint {M. 



Fig. 200. American Wild Mint {Mentha Canadensis). 

 and Brown, 111. Fl. Northeast U. S. 



After Britton 



pijjerita) and spearmint {M. spicata). The flowei*s are in close whorls at 

 the axils of the leaves, or are aggregated in a terminal spike. Monarda 

 contains some very handsome species, notably 31. didyma, the bee balm, 

 with scarlet flowers ; M. fistulosa, the wild bergamot (See Fig. 201) with 

 pink or purple flowers, and M. punctata, the horse balm, with yellowish, 

 spotted flowers. The very large genus Salvia, or sage, chiefly tropical in 

 distribution, furnishes us with common sage, valuable in seasoning, and 

 with the splendid scarlet-flowered species that give color to our flower 

 beds in the late summer. Coleus, well-known as an ornamental foliage 



