MINT FAMILY. 247 



4. 6CIMTJM, SWEET BASIL. (Greek name, referring to the odor, the 

 herbage sweet-scented.) 



O. Basilicum, SWEET BASIL. Low sweet-herb, of kitchen-gardens, from 

 India, with ovate somewhat toothed leaves, ciliate petioles and calyx, and bluish- 

 white racerned flowers, in summer. (T) 



5. COLEUS. (Name from the Greek word for sheath, alluding to the mona- 

 delphous stamens.) 



C. Blumei, of Java, especially its var. VERSCHAFFELTII, the showy spe- 

 cies of ornamental grounds in summer, planted for its richly-colored ovate pointed 

 and coarsely toothed leaves, cither blotched with crimson or bronze-red, or almost 

 wholly colored ; the inconspicuous flowers blue or bluish and racemed. 



6. HYPTIS. ( From a Greek word meaning reversed. ) Fl. late summer. 

 H. radiata. Low ground, North Carolina & S. : stems 2 - 4 high ; 



leaves lance-ovate, toothed ; flowers white or purple-dotted, small, crowded in 

 peduncled whitish-involucrate heads. ^ 



7. LAVANDITLA, LAVENDER. (From Latin lavo, to lave, for which 

 Lavender-water is used.) 



L. v6ra, GARJ>EN L. Cult, from S. Europe : a low undershrub, barely 

 hardy N., hoary, with lance-linear leaves, and slender spikes of bluish small 

 flowers on long terminal peduncles, in summer. 



8. PERILLA. (Name unexplained.) Natives of China ana Japan. 

 P. ocimoides, var crispa, or P NANKINEXSIS of the gardens, a bal- 



samic-scented much-branched herb, cult, for its foliage, the ovate-petioled leaves 

 in this variety dark purple or violet-tinged beneath, bronze-purple above, the 

 margins wavy and deeply cut-toothed, the insignificant rose-colored or whitish 

 flowers in panicled spike-like racemes, in late summer. 



10. LYCOPUS, WATER-HOREHOUND. (Name in Greek mean s wolfs 

 foot ) Resembling the Wild Mint, but bitter, and not aromatic, commonly 

 producing slender sometimes tuber-bearing runners from the base, smooth, the 

 very small white flowers close-clustered in the axils of the leaves, in summer. 

 Wild in shady moist soil. 2/ 

 L. Virginicus, BCGLKWKED. Common N. ; stems blunt-angled, 6' - 



high ; leaves mostly lance-ovate and merely toothed ; calyx-teeth 4, ovate and 



bluntish. Used in medicine. 

 '^ _ L. EuropSBUS, under several varieties : common N. & S., is taller, with 



sharply 4-angled stems, ovate-oblong or lanceolate leaves either toothed or pin- ;,,A fr 



natifid, many flowers in the clusters or whorls, and 5 calyx-teeth rigid and 



sharp-pointed, 



