174 PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



ORDER 221. LABIATiE. The Mint Tribe. 



This is a large order of important plants. They have a tubular, 

 irregular corolla, 2-lipped, with the upper lip entire or bifid, and 

 the under lip 3-lobed and larger, overlapped by the upper, sur- 

 rounded by a tubular calyx, 5 or 10-cleft, or 2-lipped, inferior, 

 persistent ; stamens 4, 2 long and 2 shorter, inserted on the 

 corolla, or with only 2 stamens, occasionally with the rudiments 

 of the other sometimes present ; ovarium 4-lobed, each lobe 

 having the rudiment of a seed, with 1 style rising from the base 

 of these lobes, and terminating in a bifid stigma; fruit 1-4 

 naked seeds or small nuts contained in the permanent calyx which 

 operates in part like a seed-vessel ; stems 4-cornered, with oppo- 

 site leaves, abounding in little sacs of aromatic oil. 



The oil, with the bitter principle, makes these plants tonic and 

 stomachic, and highly grateful and pleasant. Not one poisonous 

 plant is found in the order. They are used for many economical 

 and medicinal purposes. Camphor is one of their common pro- 

 ducts. 



The plants are widely spread over the temperate regions of the 

 earth, generally in warm, dry situations, not often in marsh-like 

 places. In Germany, France, and the United States, they form 

 about one twenty-fourth of the flowering plants ; in some places a 

 little more. Twenty -four genera and 37 species are found in this 

 State, besides many cultivated species of other genera. Some 

 of these, appearing as indigenous, have undoubtedly been intro- 

 duced from their native soils in other countries. 



Lycopus. L. 2. 1. Water Horehound. 



Named from the Greek for wolf and foot^ from the shape of 

 some of the leaves. 



L. Virginicus, L., Bugleweed, and L. Europceus^Mx., Water 

 Horehound, are common in rather moist situations in the fields, 

 about a foot high, with small whitish flowers in clusters or whorls 

 about the opposite sides of the square stem. 



These have had considerable reputation as a remedy for bleed- 



