GAMOPETAL.E 175 



59- The Deadnettle Group (Summary). 



{Introductory Volume^ p. 167.) 



As representatives of the Order Labiates three 

 common plants were described in the Introductory 

 Volume — Self-heal, Woundwort, and the White 

 Deadnettle. Some 2800 species included in 150 

 genera are known. They are cosmopolitan in dis- 

 tribution. A large proportion are natives of the 

 Mediterranean region. They are not so widely dis- 

 tributed in Arctic and Alpine regions, being mainly 

 confined to the Temperate and Tropical zones. 



The Labiates are distinguished from other groups 

 of the Gamopetalae, except the Viper's Bugloss group, 

 by the four-lobed ovary and four nutlets, like seeds, 

 enclosed in the calyx, and they are distinct from 

 the latter in having opposite leaves, in not possessing 

 five stamens (but four), and in the distinctly zygo- 

 morphic flowers. 



Nearly all the Labiates are terrestrial, but a few 

 are hygrophilous, as the Mints, and marsh plants. 

 Rosemary is a xerophyte, with leaves reduced and 

 infolded. In habit these plants are herbs or shrubs, 

 or undershrubs. The stems and branches are four- 

 angled. The leaves are in opposite pairs, decussate, 

 or in whorls, simple as a rule, with no stipules. 



The flowers are racemose or in dichasial cymes, 

 solitary, or in the axils of upper leaves, opposite, 

 centrifugal, crowded, falsely whorled, in a verticil- 



