lABXATiE. 409f 



3. Common MCelampyre. Melampyrum pratense, Liuu. 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 113, not good.) 



Stem erect or ascending, 6 inclies to a foot liigli, with very spreading, op- 

 posite branches, usually glabrous or nearly so. Leaves lanceolate, the floral 

 ones distant from each other, short, and often toothed at the base. Plowers 

 pure yellow, in distant axillary pairs, all turned one way, and about 6 to 

 8 lines long; the teeth of the calyx usually erect and shorter than the tube, 

 but they vary much both in length and direction. 



Chiefly in woods, throughout Europe and Russian Asia. Abundant in 

 Britain. Fl. summer and autumn. 



4. Small-fio'wered IMIelainpyre. Melampyrum sylvaticum, Linn. 



(Eng. Bot. t. 804.) 



Very near the common M., and not always easy to distinguish from it. 

 It is usually a smaller plant, with the floral leaves almost always entire, and 

 the flowers very much smaller, of a deep yellow ; the calycine teetli are more 

 conspicuous, and the lower ones spreading. CoroUa seldom above 4 lines 

 long. 



A high northern and alpine plant, not unfrequent in the woods of north- 

 ern Europe and Asia, and in tlje high mountain-ranges of central Em-ope, 

 the Caucasus, and Altai. In Britain, apparently hmited to the Scotch 

 Highlands and some parts of northern England. Fl. summer. 



LVII. THE LABIATE FAMILY. LABIATE. 



Herbs, or rarely shrubs, witb quadrangular stems or brancbes, 

 and leaves always opposite. Flowers in the axils of the upper 

 leaves or bracts, rarely solitary in each axil, more frequently 

 iu cymes, often so closely clustered that the two opposite 

 cymes appear like one whorl of 6, 10, or more flowers (some- 

 times called a verticillastei' or false whorl), the whole forming 

 usually a terminal compound spike, raceme, or panicle (more 

 strictly termed a thyrsus). Besides the pair of floral leaves or 

 bracts under the whorls, there are often smaller bracts to each 

 flower in the whorl. Calyx 5-toothed, or rarely 2- or 3-lobed. 

 Corolla with a distinct tube and a more or less irregular 4- or 

 5-lobed limb, usually forming two lips. Stamens 2 or 4, in 2 

 pairs. Ovary 4-lobed, with one erect ovule in each lobe, and a 

 single style rising from the centre, and shortly cleft at the top 

 into 2 stigmatic lobes. Fruit enclosed in the persistent calyx, 

 separating into 4 small one-seeded and seed-like nuts. 



A vast family, spread over every quarter of the globe, and readily known 

 from all Monopetals, except the Borage family, by the 4-lobed ovary and 

 the 4 smaU nuts resembling naked seeds in the bottom of the calyx ; and 

 from Boraginea the Labiates are distinguished by their opposite leaves, 

 the want of the fifth stamen, and usually by the more irregular flowers. 



