DIDYNAMIA— GYMNOSPERMIA. Origanum. 107 



calyx, forming a quadrangular spurious catkin. Calyx 

 with an even, bluntly angular, tube, more or less per- 

 fectly one- or two-lipped, but various in the different 

 species. Cor. ringent; tube rather longer than the ca- 

 lyx, a little compressed ; throat slightly funnel-shaped, 

 rather longer than the tube, protuberant in front at the 

 base; upper lip erect, nearly flat, obtuse, notched ; lower 

 in 3 deep, dependent, mostly equal, simple lobes. Filam. 

 thread-shaped, the 2 longest, at least, longer than the 

 corolla. Anth. distant, ovate, two-lobed. Germ, four- 

 lobed. Style thread-shaped, ascending. Stigma very 

 slightly notched. Seeds 4, ovate, in the bottom of the 

 closed permanent calyx. 

 Pungent and gratefully aromatic herbs, in some instances 

 rather shrubby ; with upright, leafy, branched or pani- 

 cled stems ; ovate, stalked leaves ; and copious, purple, or 

 whitish, erect or drooping, often very elegant, Jloxvers. 

 No genus can be more evidently natural ; but the prin- 

 cipal character, founded on the involucrum, is not strictly 

 classical. There are several beautiful Greek species. 



1. O. vulqare. Common Marjoram. 



Heads of flowers roundish, panicled, crowded, erect. In- 



volucral leaves ovate, smooth. Calyx with five acute 



unequal teeth ; throat hairy. 



O. vulgare. Linn. Sp.Pl. 824. Willd.v.3.l35. H. Br. 639. Engl. 

 Bot. V. \Q.t.\ 143. Curt. Loud. fasc. 5.t.39. Woodv. t. 1 64. 

 Hook. Scot. 184. Fl. Dan. t. 1581. Bull. Fr. t. 193. Matth. 

 Valgr.v.2.62.f. Corner. Epit. 469./. Dalech. Hist. 887./. Ehrh. 

 PL Off. 88. 



O. n. 233. Hall. Hist. v.\.\ 02. 



O. vulgare spontaneum. Raii Syn. 236. 



O.anglicum. Get. Em. 666./. 



O. sylvestre, seu vulgare. Fiichs. Hist. 552./. Ic. 315./. 



Origanum. Riv. Monop. Irr. t. 60./. 1. 



In bushy places, on a lime-stone or gravelly soil. 



Perennial. July, August. 



Root creeping. Herb a foot high, with a warm aromatic flavour, 

 somewhat like that of Wild Thyme. Stems purplish, leafy, 

 clothed unequally with short recurved hairs ; branched and pa- 

 nicled at the summit. Leaves deflexed, bright green, entire or 

 slightly serrated, minutely fringed, besprinkled with resinous 

 dots. Fl. light purple, in dense, convex tufts, with involucral 

 leaves of a darker purple, rather longer than the calyx, which 

 la.st is tubular, smooth, covered with resinous dots, and closed 

 at the mouth with dense, prominent, vciy conspicuous, white 



