MINT FAMILY. 249 



16. ORIGANUM, MARJORAM. (Old Greek name, said to mean delight 

 of mountains.) Natives of the Old World : sweet-herbs: fl. summer. ^ 



O. vulgare, WILD MARJORAM. Old gardens, and wild on some road- 

 sides ; l-2 high, with small ovate nearly entire leaves, on short petioles, and 

 purplish flowers in corymbed purple-bracted clusters or short spikes ; calyx 

 equally 5-toorhed. 



O. Majorana, SWEET MARJORAM. Cult, in kitchen-gardens (as an ) ; 

 leaves small and finely soft-downy ; the bracts not colored ; flowers whitish or 

 purplish, with calyx hardly toothed but cleft nearly down on the lower side. 



17. THYMUS, THYME. (Ancient Greek and Latin name.) Low or 

 creeping slightly woody-stemmed sweet-aromatic plants of the Old World : 

 fl. small, in summer. Leaves in the common species entire, small, from ^' 

 to near ' long, ovate, obovate or oblong with tapering base. If. 



T. Serp^llum, CREEPING THYME. Cult, as a sweet herb, rarely a little 

 spontaneous ; creeping, forming broad flat perennial turf's ; leaves green ; 

 whorls of purplish or flesh-colored flowers crowded or somewhat spiked at the 

 ends of the flowering branches. 



T. vulgaris, COMMON THYME. Rarely cult., more upright and bushy 

 than the other, pale and rather hoary ; flowers in shorter clusters. 



18. SATUR,!IA, SAVORY. (The ancient Latin name.) Aromatic: 

 fl. summer. 



S. hortensis, SUMMER SAVORY. Low and homely sweet herb of the gar- 

 dens, sparingly run wild W., with oblong-linear leaves tapering at base, and 

 pale or purplish small flowers clustered in their axils, or running into panicled 

 spikes at the end of the branches. 



19. CALAMINTHA, CALAMINTH. (Greek for beautiful Mint.} FL 

 summer. "^ 



1. Flowers loose in the axils, or above running into racemes or panicles. 



C. glabella. A delicate native but uncommon species, only from Niagara 

 Falls W. : smooth, with weak stems 5' - 20' long, also with creeping runners, 

 oblong or almost linear leaves, or ovate on the runners, the loose purplish flow- 

 ers about ' long. 



C. Nepeta, BASIL-THYME. Nat. fromEu. from Virginia S. : soft-downy, 

 branching, l-2 high, with round-ovate crenate leaves, small and loose purple 

 flowers, and calyx hairy in the throat. 



2. Flowers in terminal heads or head-like whorls, crowdtd ivith awl-shaped bracts. 



C. Clinopbdium, BASIL. Waste grounds and along thickets ; hairy, 

 with rather simple stems 1- 2 long, ovate and nearly entire petioled leaves, 

 and pale purple small corollas. 



20. MELISSA, BALM, BEE-BALM. (Old name from Greek for bee. ) 

 Old- World sweet herbs. Fl. summer. 2/ 



M. officinalis, COMMON B. Gardens, sparingly running wild ; rather 

 hairy, loosely-branched, lemon-scented, with ovate or scarcely heart-shaped cre- 

 nate'-toothed leaves, and yellowish or soon white flowers in small loose axillary 

 clusters. 



21. SALVIA, SAGE. (From the Latin salvo, to save, from its reputed 

 healing qualities. ) 



1. WILD SAGES of the country, all with blue or partly white corollas. ^ 

 * Upper lip of calyx 3-toothed: lower cell of the anther present but deformed. 

 S. lyrata. Sandy soil from New Jersey to III. & S. : l-2 high, rather 

 hairy, with leaves mostly at the root and obovate or lyre-shaped, and a smaller 

 pair on the stem ; whorls of flowers forming an interrupted raceme ; corolla 

 hardly 1' long. 



