106. LABIATE. [16. Calamintha. 



interrupted spikes, the leaves passing gradually into small lanceolate 

 then linear bracts. Calyx tubular hairy -OS--!" (in fruit) Avith erect 

 subulate hairy teeth half as long as tube, throat with a ring of 

 hairs. Corolla very slightly exserted, straight, upper lip 2-fid, lower 

 3-lobed, with mid-lobe purple broader notched. Stamens included. 



Pats of Chota Nagpur. Neterhat, elev. 3500 ft ! Parasnath, Clarke ! Fl. March- 

 April. 



Leaves puberulous above, hairy on the nerves beneath, obtuse or subacute, base 

 rounded, obtuse or cuneate. Petiole slender "OS-'IS". Lower whorls often slender- 

 peduncled, distant. Nutlets elUptic-oblong, brown, minute, smooth. 



2. M. biflora, Benth. Syn. Satureia biHora, Briq. ; Thymus biflorus. 

 Ham. ; Indian Wild Thyme. 

 A small much branched wiry herb with numerous pubescent stems 

 3-10" long from a woody rootstock, small sessile or subsessile elliptic 

 or ovate or oblong gland-dotted leaves •17-'25" long and axillary short 

 2-4-fld. cymes of small pink flowers S" long. 



Rocky places and fire-lines, Chota Nagpur. Neterhat, 3000 ft. FL, Fr. April- 

 June. Perennial. 



Stems pubescent in our specimens, sometimes glabrous (F.B.I.). Leaves with 

 thickened entire margins and 3-4 very oblique fine sec n. Petiole sometimes very 

 short, with several long hairs at the base. Calyx •12", teeth setaceous, tube 

 strongly nerved. Corolla with straight notched or 2-lobed upper lip and spreading 

 3-lobed lower lip. Stamens ascending, 2 lower longer, slightly exserted beyond the 

 upper lip, anther-cells widely divaricate. 



16. CALAMINTHA, Mcench.* 



Herbs or shrubs with entire or toothed leaves and axillary, spiked 

 or panicled whorls of Howers. Calyx 13-nerved, 2-lipped, upper lip 

 3-toothed, lower 2-fid, teeth narrower than of the upper; throat raked 

 or villous. Corolla-tube straight, throat villous, upper lip erect, 

 flattish ; lower spreading 3-lobed. Stamens 4, 2 sometimes imperfect, 

 ascending under the upper lip, anther-cells parallel or diverging. 

 Style-lobes equal or the lower larger. Nutlets minute, subglobose, 

 smooth, dry. 



1. C. umbrosa, Benth. 



Prain records this in Bengal Plants from Chota Nagpur, but I doubt the 

 identification. A supposed specimen is on the right-hand side of the same sheet as 

 one from N.W. India, and is marked " top of Parasnath." It is 7iof in flower and is 

 not in vay opinion at all like Calamintha lunbrom, but is a flowerless specimen of 

 Micromeria capitellata. The only other specimen similarly identified is one collected 

 by Campbell, probably also on Parasnath, and is likewise not injower. Although 



* Beiitham distinguishes Micromeria from Satureia mainly by the calyx being' 

 13-nerved. But this is not always the case in our species, which may be only 

 11-10-nerved ! This observation supports Briquet's view that Micromeria and 

 Calamintha should be reduced to Satureia. He charges Bentham with inconsistency 

 in splitting up Satureia while not similarly treating Salvia, Hyptis and other 

 ;genera. But Briquet seems quite as illogical in reducing Calamintha to Satureia 

 while maintaining distinct Moda and PeriZZa— groups of the most striking generic 

 similarity. The reduction of a pair of anthers in 2Ioda is a very insufficient 

 character under the circumstances, rendered the poorer in that the degree of 

 reduction is variable even in the same individual, while the only other character, 

 that of a hairy throat to the calj'x, occurs in some of his species of Satureia but not 

 in others. Calamintha seems separable from Micromeria by the more zygomorphic 

 calyx, though it would be perhaps better to include them both in Satureia were it 

 not that that genus becomes unwieldy. 



743 



