Puate LXXXIV. 
BALLOTA sprnosa, Lk. 
Natural Order LaBiaTaz. 
Gen. Cuar.—‘ Calyx almost funnel shaped, tube 10-nerved, teeth 5-10, 
dilated at the base and either forming an orbicular spreading limb, or an 
oblique limb in which the anterior portion is connate and elongate. 
Corolla tube sub-included, having a transverse hairy ring; limb bilabiate, 
upper lip erect, oblong, sub-concave, emarginate at apex. Stamens as- 
cending under the hood. Anthers exsert from the tube of the corolla, 
approaching one another in pairs, 2-celled, cells finally divaricate, sub- 
distinct. Style bifid at apex, lobes subulate. Achenes obtuse and not 
truncate at apex.” Bentham in DC. Prodr. xii., 516-7. (Translated : 
the italics are mine.) 
Spec. Cuar.—Flowers 1-3, in axillary cymes, bracts spine-shaped, 
straight. Calyx pubescent, funnel-shaped with spreading limb formed 
from the dilated bases of the 5-10 spinescent teeth. Corolla white, 
decidedly longer than calyx, the upper lip densely covered with long hairs, 
Leaves pubescent, green on either face, ovate, petiolate, entire or inciso- 
dentate. 
Ballota spinosa, Lk., Handbk. p. 457; Gren. et Godr. Fl. de Fr. ii. 
p- 695; Ardoino, Fl. Alp. Mar. p. 302; B. frutescens, Wood’s Tour. Fl. 
p. 295. 
Hasitat.—Near Gourg de l’Ora, Mentone, where it was collected by 
my father, Nov. 7, 1865. 
Remarks.—Ballota spinosa, Lk., is only known to grow in the depart- 
ment of the Basses Alpes at Entrevaux, and in that of the Alpes 
Maritimes, at the following points; Saorgio, Breglio, Sospello, between 
Castellar and Castiglione, between Ste. Agnés and Gorbio; at Eze, Nice, 
Levens, Villars, Le Bar, and St. Arnoux ; it attains its easternmost limit 
at Ventimiglia (Ardoino). The common Black Horehound (B. nigra, L.) 
is a familiar member of this genus, but belongs toa distinct section. The 
section in which B. spinosa is placed, is characterized by having the long 
spiniform bracts which give the present plant so strange an appearance. 
Mr. Bentham* enumerates five species of Ballota which have “ subulate, 
stiff, spiniform bracts and the limb of the calyx 5-10 toothed,” but of 
these only one other, B. integrifolia, Bth., growing in the island of Cyprus, 
is European ; the others come from India, Persia, and Arabia Felix. 
It is interesting to remark that B. integrifolia, which, though distant, 
is geographically the nearest closely-related neighbour of our own 
L.c. 
