%66 ROSEMARY. 



feet in height. The leaves are sessile, opposite, linear, firm, 

 about an inch in length, deep green and shining above, downy 

 or whitish beneath, with the margins revolute. The flowers are 

 axillary, in tufted, opposite cymes, with an ovate-concave, tomen- 

 tose bractea at the base of each pedicel. The calyx is slightly 

 pubescent, bilabiate, compressed at the summit ; the upper lip 

 emarginate, rather shorter, the lower with two lobes. The co- 

 rolla is pale blue, variegated with purple and white, ringent, 

 with the tube longer than the calyx ; the upper lip oblong, 

 erect and bifid ; the lower lip spreading, with three unequal 

 lobes ; the middle lobe large, concave, roundish, and crenulate 

 at the margin. The stamens are two, with subulate filaments, 

 curved and longer than the corolla, with a small recurved 

 tooth near the base behind ; anthers oblong, incumbent, blue- 

 ish. The germen is four-parted, green, obtuse, supporting a 

 subulate recurved style as long as the stamens, terminated by 

 an acute bifid stigma. The fruit consists of four achenia si- 

 tuated at the bottom of the persistent calyx. Plate 39, 

 fig. 3, («) calyx ; (b) corolla opened to show the stamens ; 

 (c) pistil. 



Rosemary grows abundantly on rocks in the southern coun- 

 tries of Europe. It was probably introduced to this country 

 by the monks in the dark ages, and has long been a favourite 

 tenant of the British garden, where it flowers in April and 

 May. 



This plant appears to be the m@cx.vuth; o-T£$a,voua.Tix.v of Dios- 

 corides, from M@otvo^, frankincense, in allusion to its odour; and 

 from crretpuvoc, a crown, because of its employment among plants 

 used for garlands and chaplets ; hence also one of its Latin 

 names, herba coronaria. The generic name is a compound of 

 ros, dew, and marinus, of the sea, in allusion to the locality of 

 the plant and its greyish appearance. It is supposed to be the 

 ros mentioned in the following lines of Virgil : — 



Nam jejuna quidem clivosa glarea ruris, 



Vix humiles apibus casias roremque ministrat. 



Georg. ii. v. 212. 



Rosemary is often introduced in the old erotic ballads, and in 

 the lays and fabliaux of the Troubadours. On account of its 

 aromatic and cephalic properties, it was considered by the an- 



