LABIATE. 29 



SPECIES I.— O RIGANUM VULGARE. Linn.' J^^. 

 Plates JIXLV. IIXLVI. 

 Bdch. Ic. PI. Gei-m. et Holv. Vol. XVIII. Tab. MCCLXII. 



Rootstock shortly creeping, with short slender ascending stolons 

 bearing minute leaves towards the apex. Stem stout, erect. Leaves 

 shortly stalked, ovate or rhombic-ovate or subdeltoid-ovate, subacute, 

 repand. Spikes ovoid or oblong, aggregated at the extremity of the 

 stem and branches, and taken together forming a narrow corymbose- 

 topped panicle. Bracts rhombic-oval, acute, slightly longer than the 

 calj'x, dark purple, with a green base, rarely entirely green. 



Var. a, genuinum. 

 Plate MXLV. 



r,mot, PI. Gall, et Germ. Exsicc. No. 65. 



O. TTilgare, Linh ; Boreau, Fl. du Centre de la Fr. Vol. II. p. 510. Sclmr, Eimm. PI. 

 Transsyl. p. 524. 



Spikes short, ovoid, few-flowered. 



Var. /3, prismaticum Gaud. 

 Plate ilXLV. 



O. megastacliyTiin Linh; Boreau, I.e. Vol. II. p. 516. Schui; I.e. p. 524. 

 O. vulgare, var. megastacliyTLm, Koch, Syn. Fl. Germ, et Helv. ed. ii. p. 639. 

 0. Creticum, var. /3, Linn. Sp. PL p. 823. 



Spikes elongate, prismatic, many-flowered. 



On banks, by roadsides, in waste and bushy places, and open 

 woods; very common in chalky districts, less common elsewhere, but 

 extending over the whole of England. Rare in Scotland, but reaching 

 north to the counties of Moray, Aberdeen, and Argyle. Generally 

 distributed in Ireland, especially in the south. Var. was fomid 

 near Kinshaw, North Herefordshire, by the Rev. W. H. Purchas, but 

 considered by him to be very doubtfully native in that station : I 

 have it also from Cramond Bridge, near Edinburgh, collected by Dr. 

 Murchieson. 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Late Summer, Autumn. 



Rootstock woody, branched, and shortly creejiing, so as to produce 

 tufts of stems, which are 9 inches to 3 feet high. Lower leaves 

 generally decayed at the time of flowering, the rest with fascicles of 

 smaller leaves or short branches in their axils ; lamina i inch to IJ, 

 inch long. S})ikes rarely exceeding | to ^ inch long in var. a, but 



