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2. ORIGANUM DICTAMNUS, 



DITTANY OF CRETE. 



THIS genus affords plants of the herbaceous annual and under- 

 shrubby perennial kinds. 



It belongs to the class and order Didynamia Gynmospermia, and 

 ranks in the natural order of Verticillata. 



The characters are : that the calyx is a spiked involucre, com- 

 posed of imbricate, ovate, coloured bractes: perianthium unequal, 

 various: the corolla one-petalled, ringent: tube cylindrical, com- 

 pressed: upper lip erect, flat, blunt, emarginale: lower trifid, the 

 segments almost equal: the stamina have four filiform filaments, the 

 length of the corolla, of which two arc longer: anthers simple: the 

 pistillum is a four-cleft germ: style filiform, inclined to the upper 

 lip of the corolla: stigma very slightly bifid: there is no peiicar- 

 pium: calyx converging, fostering the seeds at bottom: the seeds 

 four, ovate. 



The species cultivated are: 1. O. vulgare, Common Marjoram ; 

 2. 0. ouites, Pot Marjoram; 3. O. majorana, Sweet or Knotted Mar- 

 joram; 4. O. heracleoticum, Winter Sweet Marjoram; 5. O. JEgyptia- 

 citrn, Egyptian Marjoram; 6. O. dictamnus, Dittany of Crete or 

 Candia. 



The first has a perennial, creeping, horizontal, brown root, tufted 

 with numerous fibres: the stem a foot, eighteen inches, or near two 

 feet in height, upright, somewhat woody, a little downy, and often 

 tinged with purple: the branches opposite, upright, more tender than 

 the stalk, in other respects similar: the leaves are ovate, pointed, 

 finely and thinly toothed, above nearly smooth, beneath downy, 

 dolled on both sides, the edges finely ciliate, spreading: the petioles 

 downy: axils of the leaves, in the cultivated plant, bear numerous 



