116 



THE OSWEGO TEA. 



The Labiatae, or family of mints, con- 

 sists of about one hundred and sixty 

 genera, including the one to which the 

 Oswego Tea of our illustration belongs 

 Under these genera are classed over three 

 thousand distinct species. Many of these 

 are well-known plants, such as the minrs, 

 pennyroyal, anise, bergamot, fennel, cat- 

 nip, sage, thyme, lavender and rosemary. 

 Representatives of this family are dis- 

 tributed throughout the world in the reni- 

 perate and tropical regions. In fact, it is 

 one of the most cosmopolitan of the plant 

 families. 



The characteristics of the family are 

 very marked. The foliage abounds in 

 volatile oils which generally give ofT an 

 aromatic odor, especially when the leaves 

 are bruised. The leaves are opposite and 

 usually arise from a four-sided stem. The 

 flowers, as a rule, are strongly two-lipped. 

 This character gives to the famil}' its 

 scientific name, which is derived from a 

 Latin word meaning lip. The stamens 

 are attached to the corolla and are usual- 

 ly four in number, two of which are 

 longer than the others. The ovary is four- 

 lobed, and the resulting fruit consists of 

 four nutlets, each containing one seed. 



The Oswego Tea belongs to the genus 

 Monarda, a group of plants named in 

 honor of Nicolas Monardes, a Spanish 

 physician and botanist of the sixteenth 

 century He wrote a number of valuable 

 papers on the medicinal and other econom- 

 ic plants, especially treating of those from 

 America. This genus includes about ten 



species, all natives of North America and 

 Mexico. 



The Oswego Tea (Monarda didyma) is 

 frequently called Bee Balm, and locally it 

 is often known as Fragrant Balm, Moun- 

 tain Mint and Indian Plume. This plant 

 prefers a moist soil near the wooded 

 banks of streams and in the hilly and 

 mountainous regions of Canada and the 

 United States, east of the Mississippi 

 River. In North Carolina it is found at 

 an altitude of over live thousand feet. 



The leaves are egg-shaped, elongated, 

 taper-pointed and more or less saw- 

 toothed on the margins. The fioral leaves 

 are tinged with red of nearly the same 

 shade as that of the bright red and showy 

 flowers. The flowers which appear in 

 July, August and September and are 

 about two inches in length, are massed in 

 a dense, solitary and globular head, which 

 is situated at the end of the flower stalk. 



The flowers produce an abundant nec- 

 tar, which attracts bumblebees, butter- 

 flies and humming birds ; these by trans- 

 ferring the pollen from flower to flower 

 assist in the fertilization of the develop- 

 ing seeds. The ordinary bees are barred 

 from the sweets of this plant because of 

 their short tongues, though some forms 

 will cut a hole in the side of the corolla 

 and obtain the nectar in this manner. 



It is said that certain Indian tribes use 

 this bark in preparing a tea that is nearly 

 as palatable as that made from the ordin- 

 arv tea of connnerce. 



