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2. ORIGANUM DICTAMNUS. 



DITTANY OF CRETE. 



This genus affords plants of ihe herbaceous annual and under- 

 shrubby perennial kinds. 



It belongs to the class and order Didynamia Gijmnospcrtma, and 

 ranks in the natural order of" Vevticillata. 



Tiie characters are : that the calyx is a spiked involucre, com- 

 posed of imbricate, ovale, coloured bracles: perianlhium unequal, 

 various: the corolla one-petalled, ringent: tube cylindrical, com- 

 pressed: upper lip creel, flat, blunt, emarginale: lower Irifid, the 

 segments ahuost e(|ual: the slamina have foin- filiform filamejUs, the 

 length of the corolla, of which two arc longer: anthers siin])le : the 

 pistillum is a four-cleft germ: style filiform, inclined to the upper 

 lip of the corolla: stigma very slightly bifid: iherc is no pcricar- 

 j)iiun: calyx converging, fostering the seeds at bollom: ihe seeds 

 four, ovate. 



The species cultivated arc: I. 0. vulgarc, Common ]\Iarjoram ; 

 2. 0. oiiitfs, Pot Marjoram; 3. O. ntajoraua. Sweet or Knollcd Mar- 

 joram; 4. O. Jieiacleoticiim, Winter Sweet Marjoram; 5. O. Mgyptta- 

 ciim, Egyptian Marjoram; 6. O. dictamniis, Dittany of Crete or 

 Candia. 



The first has a perennial, creeping, horizontal, brown root, tufted 

 with numerous fibres: the stem a foot, eighteen inches, or near two 

 feel in height, upright, somewhat woody, a little downy, and often 

 tinged with pur|)le: the branches opposite, upright, more lender than 

 the stalk, in other respects similar: llic^ leaves arc ovate, pointed, 

 finely and thinly toothed, above nearly smooth, beneath downy, 

 dotted on both sides, the edges finely ciliate, spreading: the j)eliol{>s 

 downy: axils of the leaves, in the cultivated plant, bear numerous 



