LABI AT AE (MINT FAMILY) 359 



long, the upper lip merely notched but the lower one three-lobed 

 and spreading ; perfect stamens two, rising against the upper lip, 

 with two rudimentary ones below. The four nutlets within the 

 persistent calyx, very small. (Fig. 249.) 



Means of control 



Meadows infested with the plant should be cut before the seeds 

 develop. Cultivation and enrichment of the soil, where prac- 

 ticable, soon enables better plants to crowd out the weed. 



CALAMINT OR WILD BASIL 



Satureja vulgaris, Fritsch 

 (Clinopddium vulgar e, L.) 



Other English names: Field Basil, Stone Basil, Horse Thyme, Basil- 

 weed. 



Native. Perennial. Propagates by seeds 

 and by stolons. 



Time of bloom: June to August. 



Seed-time: August to October. 



Range : Nova Scotia to Manitoba, south- 

 ward to West Virginia, and in the 

 Rocky Mountains to Colorado. 



Habitat : Alluvial banks, brushy upland 

 pastures, and borders of woods. 



Not even sheep care to eat Calamint, 

 and if the plant had not such a prefer- 

 ence for partial shade its stoloniferous 

 habit would make it a bad weed. Stems 

 erect, slim, square, hairy, ten to twenty 

 inches tall, usually with a few branches 

 but often simple. Leaves also hairy, 

 variable in shape but mostly a long- 

 pointed oval, sometimes toothed, some- 

 times entire or wavy-edged, the upper 

 ones sessile, the lower ones having short 



petioles. Flowers in dense axillary and 



. , , , , _, FIG. 250. Calamint or 



terminal clusters, the latter nearly glob- Wild Basil (Satureja vulca- 



ular ; the subtending bracts bristly-hairy m). x J. 



