MiXT. 225 



Basil Balm, or Basil Thyme. Melissa Acinos, Benth. Lab., 

 p. 399 (from aicivo^ the Grreek name of a balsamic plant now un- 

 known). This is an herbaceous, pleasantly aromatic annual with 

 erect stem, usually procumbent at the base ; branches usually 

 purplish, more or less villous ; leaves ovate, sub-serrated ; flowers 

 almost sessile ; whorls distant, 6-flowered ; lips of calyx short ; 

 corollas purplish blue, upper lip entire; lower lobe of style 

 flattened. Xative of Europe in cornfields. Syn. Thymus Acinos, 

 Lin., Spec, 826 ; Hooker, Continuation of Curtis' Flora Londinensis, 

 i., with a figure; Sowerby, Eng. Bot., t. 411. Acinos thymoides, 

 Moench, Melhodus plantas horti, p. 407. Acinos vulgaris, Persoon, 

 Synopsis Plantarum, ii., p. 131. Calamintlia arvensis, de la Marck, 

 Flore Franqaise, ii., p. 394 ; de Lobel, Stirpium Icones, i., t. 506, f. 

 1 ; Pdvinus, Ordo plantarum flore monopetalo, t. 43, f. 2 ; Morison, 

 Plantarum historia universalis Oxoniensis, iii., p. 404 ; sect, ii., t. 

 18, fig. 1. 



Various other, but less important species of Melissa are described 

 by Bentham in his Labiatarum genera et species, and by Linneus 

 in Species Plantarum. 



All species of Balm grow in common garden earth and are of 

 easy culture. The perennial herbaceous kinds are readily increased 

 by parting the roots ; the suffruticose species by cuttings, and 

 seeds of annual kinds may be set in the open ground. 



Cedronella. — The herbaceous, labiate plant sometimes 

 incorrectly designated " Balm of Gilead " is the DroLcocej)lhaliiiiv 

 Ganaripnse, Lin. (Spec, 829), also known as Cedronella t7^i2Jhylla 

 and Cedronella canariensis, is a native of the Canary Islands. It 

 is sometimes met with in old-fashioned gardens, in the warmest 

 parts of England, and is sometimes cultivated in cool green-houses,, 

 being valued for the rich fragrance of its foliage, a fragrance very 

 difficult to describe, but somewhat reminding of lemon leaf and 

 camphor. The usual height of the plant in England is from two 

 to three feet ; under favourable conditions of climate and cultivation 

 it will attain five feet. The stalk of the plant is square, tolerably 

 firm, upright, and much branched. The leaves are tern ate, and 

 pubescent beneath. The flowers are formed in loose terminal 

 whorls, 10 to 12-flowered ; corolla white or pale purple. 



The plant is easily propagated both by seeds and cuttings. The 

 finest plants are obtained from seeds brought direct from the 

 Q 



