614 MENTHACEAE 



Family 134. MENTHACEAE.* 

 Mint Family. 



Aromatic punctate herbs or shrubs or some tropical species trees, mostly with 

 4-sided stems and simple opposite exstipulate leaves. Flowers mostly irregular and 

 bilabiate, or rarely regular, variously clustered, the inflorescence typically cymose 

 and bracteolate. Calyx persistent, 2-lipped or regular, mostly 5-toothed or 5-lobed. 

 Corolla commonly 2-lipped with the upper lip 2-lobed or sometimes entire, and the 

 lower lips 3-lobed, or sometimes nearly regular. Stamens borne on the corolla-tube 

 and alternate with the lobes, generally 4 and didynamous, rarely equal, sometimes 

 reduced to 2 with or without staminodia ; anthers 2-celled, introrse or confluently 

 1 -celled or sometimes one cell suppressed. Ovary 4-lobed or 4-parted, superior, each 

 of the 4 divisions with a single usually anatropous ovule ; style arising from the 

 center of the ovary, 2-lobed at the summit. Fruit of four 1 -seeded nutlets. Seed 

 erect or transverse in Scutellaria ; endosperm none or scanty ; embryo mostly 

 straight with a short inferior radicle. 



A family of about 160 genera and 3,200 species of wide ^eogra^ical distribution in temperate and tropi- 

 cal regions. In most species volatile oils are present in the foliage. The family is also known as the Labiatae 

 or the Lamiaceae. 



Ovary 41obed, style not basal; nutlets almost completely united, laterally attached. (Ajugeae.) 



Corolla very irregular, apparently 1 -lipped; stamens moderately exserted. 1. Teucrium. 



Corolla nearly equally S-lobed; stamens long-exserted. 2. Trichostema. 



Ovary deeply 4-parted, style basal; nutlets almost distinct, basally attached. 

 Calyx 2-lipped, lips entire. (Scutellarieae.) 



Calyx bladdery-inflated in fruit; flowers in loose spikes; desert shrub. 3. Salasaria. 



Calyx with helmet-like protuberance on the upper side; flowers solitary in the axils; herbs. 



4. Scutellaria. 



Calyx regularly 5-toothed (10-toothed in Marrubium) or 2-lipped with 3 teeth on the upper lip and 2 

 teeth on the lower lip. (.Stachyeae.) 

 Stamens and style included in the corolla-tube; calyx-teeth 10, spinescent, recurved and hooked in fruit. 



5. Marrubium. 



Stamens and style exserted beyond the corolla-tube; calyx-teeth 5, not recurved and hooked in fruit. 

 Stamens ascending, not declined and enveloped by the lower lip. 

 Corolla strongly 2-lipped, the lips unequal. 



Upper pair of stamens longer than the lower. 



Anther-sacs parallel or nearly so; upper stamens declined. 6. Agastache. 



Anther-sacs divergent. 



Calyx tubular, nearly equally S-toothed, not at all 2-lippcd. 



7. Nepeta. 

 Calyx distinctly 2-lipped or unequally 5-toothed. 



Trailing herbs; calyx unequally 5-toothed. 8. Glecoma. 



Erect herbs; calyx 2-lipped. 9. Moldavica. 



Upper pair of stamens shorter than the lower pair or equaling them. 



Calyx closed in fruit, its upper lip truncate with 3 cusps on the margin, lower lip 

 2-cleft. 10. Prunella. 



Calyx not closed in fruit, regularly 5-toothed or if 2-lobed the upper lip not 

 truncate. 

 Upper lip of corolla concave. 

 Fertile stamens 4. 



Calyx membranous in fruit; pollen-sacs nearly parallel. 



1 1 . Dracocephalum. 



Calyx not membranous; pollen-sacs strongly divergent. 



Calyx-teeth not spine-tipped or mucronate; corolla without hairy 

 ring within. 12. Lamium. 



Calyx-teeth spine-tipped or mucronate; corolla-tube with a hairy 

 ring within. 13. Stachys. 



Fertile stamens 2. 



Calyx distinctly 2-lipped, or in one species of Salvia the orifice entire 

 and very oblique. 

 Anthers with 2 approximate pollen-sacs. 14. Acanthomintha. 

 Anthers with the connective elongated and articulate with the fila- 

 ment, bearing 1 pollen-sac on the ascending end and a 

 reduced sac or none on the other end. 



15. Salvia. 



Calyx equally S-cleft. 16. Monarda. 



Upper lip of corolla plane. 



Anther-bearing stamens 2, the other two reduced to staminodia or wanting. 



18. Hedeoma. 



* Carl Epling's recent monographic studies of Scutellaria and other genera of the mint family have extended 

 materially the knowledge of this family which is so richly represented in the Pacific States. 



