ADDISONIA 39 
(Plate 180) 
MONARDA MEDIA 
Purple Bergamot 
Native of northeastern United States 
Family LAMIACEAE Mint Family 
Monarda media Willd. Enum. 32. 180 
Monarda fistulosa media A. Gray, Syn. es 2): 374. 1878. 
Species of Monarda have been cultivated in gardens for about 
three centuries. The horsemint or wild bergamot was well known in 
England before 1755, but in that year Peter Collinson brought a 
bright patch of color to the gardens by introducing Monarda didyma, 
our Oswego tea. About 1792 a purple-flowered form was brought 
into England, whence it was probably distributed to the continent. 
Willdenow described it as a new species from plants growing in 
the Botanic Garden in Berlin. 
The robust weedy habit of growth of the monardas makes their 
cultivation easy. Spreading rapidly by the roots, they form great 
matted crowns, and the only cultivation they need is restrictive, to 
keep them within bounds, and to prohibit their running out other 
plants. The purple bergamot is propagated readily by division of 
roots, and grows in any soil, but may do better with one which 
retains moisture. If the plants are cut back after flowering, they 
will give more bloom later in the season. The illustration was pre- 
pared from a plant growing in the New York Botanical Garden. 
The purple bergamot is a perennial herb, growing two or three 
feet high. The strong — are four-angled, reddish j in ie se 
slightly hairy. They bear many opposite, short-stalked, dark gree 
leaves, with ovate eeicnted blades acute at the tips. The 
flowers are in dense terminal clusters, subtended by showy purple 
bracts, some i and leaf-like, others long and narrow, with thread- 
like points. Each flower has a tubular, 15-ribbed calyx, with sharp, 
awl-shaped lobes, and spreading hairs in the throat; a purplish-red, 
hairy corolla, which is two-lipped, the upper lip ‘short, concave, 
and the lower oblong, three-lobed, the middle lobe the most promi- 
nent. Only two of the stamens ae Snes and these are exserted 
from the corolla and are very slen 
KENNETH R. BOYNTON. 
EXPLANATION OF PiaTs. Fig. 1.—Flowering stem. Fig. 2.—Calyx, X 3. 
Fig. 3.—Stamens, X 3. Fig. 4.—Fruit, X 3. Fig. 5.—Nutlet, X 3. 
