172 



tivation, and what is more decisive, under precisely similar circum- 

 stances with its ally, C officinalis. I shall confine my remarks to 

 what I have myself observed ; and it will be seen that my observations 

 are entirely in confirmation of the opinions expressed by my friend 

 its discoverer. A single glance at the plant growing in its natural 

 habitat, would satisfy any observer of its distinctness from C. offici- 

 nalis ; and it is worthy of remark, that all who were able to visit the 

 station, held this opinion from the first, while all the eminent bota- 

 nists to whom dried specimens were sent, came to the contrary con- 

 clusion. Different as are the habits of the two species, it appeared 

 difficult at first to find distinctive characters between them, such as 

 should be explicit and easily recognized from description. These, 

 however, have been subsequently detected, and are perfectly sufficient 

 to mark the specific distinctness of the two plants. Dr. Bromfield 

 (Phytol. ii. 51) mentions the circumstance of my having pointed out 

 to him one of these characters, namely, the difference of the roots in 

 respect to creeping stolons ; and in their habits in this particular will 

 be found the principal difference between the two plants, which is 

 available for descriptive distinction : — the characters on this point 

 being absolute, whereas, the others, striking as they appear when the 

 plants are viewed together, are yet only comparative. Dr. Bromfield, 

 in his excellent and elaborate description, does not, however, in giv- 

 ing the habit of the root of his species, describe its peculiarity quite 

 to its full extent. He speaks of its " sending out one or more under- 

 ground runners or stolons," whereas, in fact, it sends them out very 

 numerously, and sometimes literally by dozens. 



Presuming that the mode of growth of the common calamint (C. 

 officinalis), which is truly suffrutescent, the lower part of the stem be- 

 ing woody and persistent, and throwing out each spring new upper 

 shoots, but never producing stolons, — presuming that the habit of 

 this, the common species is generally known, I shall only proceed to 

 detail the mode of growth in the new species. 



In Calamintha sylvatica may be detected, at the time of flowering, 

 numerous stolons, some running underground, and some visible above, 

 and a few low trailing branches. After the infloi-escence has passed, 

 these low trailing branches continue to grow in an ascending form, 

 and finally terminate, in the early winter, with a little tuft of folded 

 leaves or false bracteas, such as those which may be so frequently seen 

 in the autumn in Glechoma and some of our perennial species of Ve- 

 ronica. The mode of growth above described, will be allowed to be 

 very different from that of C. officinalis. 



